A Fox and a Sword
by Roxas Duskwalker
Summary: What if by chance a door had been opened? Two persons that were never meant to meet and now they are as close as brothers. What if fate had been a bit kinder and Naruto had a friend early on and a better upbringing? Read and find out. The Naruto story retold, with some twists. Pairings NaruXHina, ? On hold
1. Prologue

AN: Hello there. This idea below just wouldn´t leave me alone and I just had to type it down. It will be the Naruto story, but with some twists and I know this first chapter may seem a bit strange, but I will hurry to get the next one done and clear things up a bit.

For those who don´t know Roxas or DiZ, they are characters of Kingdom Hearts and throughout the story there will be some little appearances of other Kingdom Hearts elements, but nothing major. For now just treat Roxas and DiZ like OC´s and don´t worry there won´t be too many appearances of other elements.

This story plays in the Narutoverse and will stay there, it just happens that I like Roxas and needed a way to insert an OC, so I think this works just fine. Now without further blithering from my part, on with the story and have fun with this chapter.

Oh and don´t forget to leave a Review. Questions, suggestions, criticism, ... everything is appreciated.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor Kingdom Hearts and nothing else I might use in this story. There is no profit, no benefits and nothing even remotely similar earned by this fic. I only do it for fun and to enjoy any form of criticism I might get.

* * *

There was a slight rustle in the leaves of several trees, as a light breeze blew through the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The sun was slowly sinking behind the horizon and currently the sky was painted in a rich orange. Everything was calm and quite in Konohagakure and slowly the day's business was dying down. Merchants prepared to close their stores for the day, bars and restaurants began to fill with many people, civilians and Ninja alike and finally there were the families who were sitting down together for dinner. Yes, all in all life seemed to be peaceful and quite all throughout Konoha.

All this was watched by two blondes who sat on the Hokage Monument. One sat on the head of the Fourth Hokage, he is clad in simple black pants and a white shirt with a red spiral symbol on it, concluded is his outfit by an orange jacket with black stripes which was only half closed. The other boy sat on the head of the Third Hokage and he is clad in white pants with a black stripes going down on each leg and a black jacket with red markings all over that was left open it over a white shirt. Both had their blue eyes glued to the peaceful scenery before them and were enclosed in their own thoughts.

Another slight rustle was heard as another breeze blew through the village. The air was filled with the aroma of earth and fresh plants, mixed with the scents of countless meals which were served throughout the village. Neither boy moved at this slight distraction, but neither was it ignored. The boy on the Third´s hat sighed in pure bliss and simply enjoyed this moment of peace, an action that was soon copied by the second blond boy. They both had earned this moment of peace after the day´s events.

In the dwindling light of the day the hair of the boy on the Third´s head was bordering to golden and his brother´s was faintly looking orange for a change. Those boys while looking faintly alike were no brothers by blood, but by heart. They had known each other since the day they were born, they had gone through every misery and happiness in their lives together and the events off the ending day had only strengthened this bond. Those two were brothers in every meaning of the word.

The now golden-haired boy finally looked up from the village to reveal a smooth face, but sadly it was clad with a bandage that covered nearly the entire right part of his face. He slowly moved his arms and undid the bandages, freeing his gravity defying hair, which stood to the sky proudly in form of many spikes. He also revealed a nearly perfectly healed scar going from below his eye to a bit above it, the scar was hard to make out on a distance, but not to miss if you looked closer. Despite the scar looking dangerous for his eyesight, his untouched bright blue iris revealed his eye to be completely unharmed. He held onto the bandage for a moment, before he let loose and let it fly over the village carried by the slight breeze. He watched the bandage for some long moments and finally his concentration seemed to break and the bandage ignited into flames. Only seconds later nothing but ashes would remain of the bandage. Nothing but the scar would remind them of the day´s events. But even if the obvious scar might heal, the emotional scars would take years until they were healed … if they ever were.

The other boy tore his eyes away from the village laid out beneath them shortly after, he looked to the other boy and especially the light scar, before showing a sad smile. Things could have been worse, they got lucky after all. But what was it? Had it been luck, a stroke of destiny or something completely different? Maybe they will never know. It wouldn´t do any good to dwell on the past, but still … What if something had been different?

Finally the sun set completely and at the last moment there was a white flash in the sky. It was so fast that if you had blinked, you would have missed it. Both boys had seen it however and both started to remember another evening when the sun had set like this. Sure they hadn´t much memories of that evening, since they had only been newborns that day, but they had heard the story countless times by their `Jiji´, their grandfather-figure. The old man is wise and powerful and both looked up to him. He was the Hokage after all.

Well it was getting time to go home, it wouldn´t do any good to make everyone worry even more and they would probably never hear the end of it if they were late for dinner. They stood up without saying a word and slowly made their way down the mountain and moved to the estate, to their surrogate family.

Shortly before they would enter their home one of them finally spoke up. "Hey Naruto, I know you probably feel sorry or something like that. But listen, this isn´t your fault." To prove his statement he pointed to the slight scar that now could barely be seen in the evening lights.

The over boy looked over to him and his facial features lightened and loosened up a bit at that. He even managed a smile, but sadly it didn´t reach his eyes. The six whisker marks on his cheeks stood proudly to the world as if screaming that this boy was different. It took some time for him to bring his thoughts together and when he finally spoke up every sign of happiness had left his face and voice. "I know, I didn´t ask for this after all. But still, you got hurt protecting me, protecting … a demon …"

"That´s not true! I got hurt protecting my brother, which is my right and duty as a good brother. Nothing more and nothing less. Now cut the demon crap or I have to punch this idea out of your head, understood?!" Now this boy was slowly losing his temper, they had been over this countless times by now and it was time his brother snapped out of it.

Fortunately it seemed he had gotten through this time, since being around his brother for this long he could clearly see which smile was true and which was fake. This time it was a true one. "Thanks brother and you´re right. I´m me and nobody else, right Roxas? Now let´s get going before we are late. Race you to the door."

"Oh you are so on." And with that both dashed off in speed nearly unseen in boys their age. Laughing and taunting each other the entire way.

Neither Naruto, nor Roxas was aware that they were being watched by the old Hokage himself. Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in his office and looked into his crystal ball and smiled to himself. Once again he remembered, something he did more often nowadays. He remembered … how everything began.

* * *

(October 11th twelve years ago)

Hiruzen sat in his office and let out a deep sigh. He was tired, truly tired now. The village was in chaos, one half of the village council dead or needed within their clans and the other half was out for Naruto´s blood. Naruto… Minato´s and Kushina´s son lay in a cradle next to him. It had only been hours since the attack had taken place and already there were people who demanded to kill the "Demon-scum", if they only knew… But he couldn´t tell them his heritage, he would be in grave danger if the world knew. But still … with the way things are going, he could now be in grave danger in his own village.

He just didn´t know what to do anymore. Naruto would probably have no chance for a normal life, but this wasn´t fair … This boy is a hero. He keeps those fools save from the Kyubi and still they only see the demon in him. If there only was an easy way out.

And that´s when things got from bad to worse.

Hiruzen was so deep in his thoughts, that he nearly missed the ripping sound in the middle of his office. But he wasn´t known as the God of Shinobi for nothing. Within a second he leaped into action, took a guarded stance and was ready for every form of assault that may come.

He wasn´t however prepared for a form of portal opening in front of him. And much less for a person to calmly step out of it. The portal closed behind this strange man and he stood there as if nothing had happened at all.

His clothes were very strange as well, like nothing that Hiruzen had ever seen through his whole life. His face was covered in red bandages, save for his right eye and mouth, and he had tied two intersecting belts around his head, one passing over where his left eye should be. He wore a long, red cape with an odd, angular cut taken out at the chest, the edges of which are yellow. This cut exposes a similarly oblong white symbol on a pitch-black shirt. Overtop this shirt, the strange man wore what seems to be grey, segmented armor over his sides and abdomen. His legs were covered by a long, black cloth lined with yellow, which itself has several brown straps pinned onto the front, seemingly for no purpose other than to create yet another angular pattern. On a yellow sash that hangs around his waist were three brown pouches, descending downward diagonally on his left hip.

All in all this seemed pretty strange, but still he held some kind of strength. He stood tall and proud and radiated an aura of superiority. He clearly had Hiruzen on the edge. But what this man had to say was even weirder.

"Who are you if I may ask?"

Hiruzen while still being on the edge studied this man very closely and noticed another thing, he held some kind of blanked on one of his arms. While his demeanor seemed relaxed it wasn´t good to take chances, especially now that the village was in such a dire situation.

"You come into my office and ask questions. Why don´t we start the other way around and you explain yourself first. Now or I will have to attack!"

"Oh, I wouldn´t want that now. How about we sit down, this will surely take some time." Hiruzen wasn´t sure, but he thought he saw the bundle in the man´s arms move.

* * *

(One secret conversation later)

"Make sure to come by some time DiZ. I think the boy would like to know his savior."

"Very well Hiruzen, while I can´t promise anything I will see what I can do. Remember through, if I don´t make it, give him this letter when he becomes a ninja. And please ask your son to take them in, I … I just want the boy to have a chance for a better life and I think it could help little Naruto over there as well. Now I will be going and remember to keep this secret, wouldn´t want to endanger the world order, now would we?"

"Certainly not. I wish you all of luck. Good Bye, oh and next time you need to tell me your name."

DiZ only chuckled as he opened another portal and disappeared into it. This had been the last he had seen of this strange man. He was left with two babies this evening, a whole bunch of problems and only a slight shimmer of hope. However, he would do everything in his might to protect those two boys and he would be damned before he let them be harmed by anyone.

On this day, two orphans came to Konoha one by the name Naruto and the other by the name Roxas. One brought by the unending love of his parents and the other by the sheer power of his will and the kindness of one man. Let´s see what will become of this two.

'This ought to be interesting' was Hiruzen´s last thought, before he took both babies and made his way to the Hokage estate.

* * *

AN: I know a bit cryptic, but it will get much clearer in the next chapter, till then stay tuned dear readers.


	2. Changes

AN: Well, I said I would work fast. Here it is, the real first chapter of this story. You will see in this chapter, that I had done some changes in the Narutoverse. I hope you approve of them and if not I would like to hear your reason and thus giving me the chance to explain myself.

I think it will now take me a bit longer to update, but I will at least update once every week. Till then enjoy this chapter and leave a review if you might. Like I said every form of criticism will help me to improve, your ideas will make this story better and even the tiniest encouragement can make me work faster.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor Kingdom Hearts and nothing else I might use in this story. There is no profit, no benefits and nothing even remotely similar earned by this fic. I only do it for fun and to enjoy any form of criticism I might get.

* * *

(Eight years later, Monday Afternoon, Academy)

It had been eight years since the fateful night of the Kyubi attack. After Roxas´ appearance had been covered to let him look like one of the many children who had lost their parents in the Kyubi attack, the Hokage had decided to take it upon himself to protect both Naruto and Roxas. He had asked one of his sons, Asuma Sarutobi, for help and together (and a little help from other Jonin and Anbu) they had managed to raise the kids close to normal. While the Hokage´s influence protected Naruto from most of the hatred the villagers might have had, Roxas presence helped him to become friends with some other children early on. Those two had grown up together in the Hokage mansion, they had a nanny early on and occasionally were watched by Ninjas as babysitters. Most times they had their meals with the Sarutobi family and were really accepted by all of them. While some civilians and their children still stayed away from Naruto and (due to them being glued together by the hip) Roxas too, most Ninjas had accepted the boys as citizens of Konohagakure and thus as their companions.

Naruto had shown early on that he wanted to be a Ninja and wants to become the Hokage no less is his greatest dream. Roxas had shown great companionship to Naruto and mostly is friendly with everyone he meets. He is one of the most liked kids in the whole village (except by those who still hated Naruto) and his greatest desire is to protect the village and his bonds. Both had been enlisted to the Ninja Academy and by now they were in their second year there.

Currently Naruto and Roxas sat in the Academy for detention, after Naruto had pulled a prank on one of their teachers, Mizuki. They were being watched by Iruka Umino one of the Academy instructors and they were tasked with a simple Chakra exercise. They were to stick leaves to their foreheads and let them stick there with a strong concentration of Chakra. This exercise should improve their Chakra Control and their concentration. What no one would have guessed was that both blonds had their leaves sticking to their foreheads and still to chat animatedly. Being intrigued by this Iruka decided to go over to them and investigate a bit.

"Well done you two. You´ve only been at it for five minutes and you have already mastered this exercise. Care to tell me how you did it?"

Roxas being the more responsible one decided to answer for them. "Oh, well the old man and Asuma-sensei had us do this exercise for thousands of times already. Every time my idiot of a brother decided to pull a prank we had to do extra training and it mostly regarded exercises like this. They said 'to hone our concentration and avoid distractions'. In the long run it seems that this was rather good right?" While Roxas talked Naruto had decided to show off a bit. Currently he was moving the leave from his forehead to his check, neck, other cheek and back to his forehead. To say Iruka was impressed would be an understatement.

"Wow, I never knew you were this close to the Hokage and his family. Have they trained you in other things already?" Iruka asked after he had composed himself a bit.

Again Roxas was the one to answer, while Naruto started to rotate the leave on his forehead. "Well neither Naruto nor I have parents, they … they died in the Kyubi attack shortly after we were born." At this one or two tears escaped Roxas´ eyes and even Naruto who had heard the entire thing seemed to be subdued a bit. But they recovered quickly and Roxas wiped his eyes before he broke into a big smile, just like Naruto did. "But they died protecting the leave, they died as heroes and now are in a better place, I´m sure. Well the Hokage took us in and helped to raise us, as had his family. If someone were to ask me, they are as much family as we need. The old man is like a grandfather and the rest are like uncles and aunts to us. They really are our family and so we grew rather close to them." A rare small smile could be seen on Naruto´s face when he heard that and remembered their past. "So we got some lessons from the Hokage himself, though he calls it punishment and does it to distract Naruto and wants to keep his mind away from pranks. He mostly had us do Chakra Exercises and says that my control is well beyond my age and I think he even showed Naruto one or two Jutsus, right Naruto? … Naruto?" Naruto still was lost in his thoughts and had stopped listening to the conversation earlier on. Roxas decided to bring him back to reality with a little trick of his own. He concentrated on the leave to let it wander to the palm of his hand and then coated it in a layer of Chakra. He shot the Chakra forward and did hit Naruto with the leave in the middle of his forehead.

Angrily Naruto pressed a hand to his forehead and looked around him a bit confused. When he saw Roxas and Iruka laughing he quickly figured out what had happened. He remembered what had been asked of him earlier and decided to just answer the question to spare himself some embarrassment. "Yes, he taught me two Jutsus to be exact, the Shadow Clone and the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu. They were quite hard to learn, but they are perfect for me and my extremely big reserves he said. Oh and Asuma-sensei started to train me in Wind Jutsu last week. I´m not that good at it right now, but I think I got the grasp of the basics already, even if I´m still struggling with the leave cutting exercise. Hey Roxas, I heard him say that you started with Kenjutsu now, is this right?"

Roxas had still to stifle his laugh at Naruto´s extend, but when he finally was able to come around he answered Naruto´s question truthfully. "Yep, he finally admitted that fighting with weapons would suite me very well. We tried out some weapons and found out that I was rather good with swords. Now he helps me learning the basics of a special style I have chosen and he even promised to find a tutor for me who specializes in swords. Despite this he is helping me with my Fire Style and even ..."

"Wait! You both already know what your elements are and started training with them?" Iruka interrupted absolutely bewildered.

It was Naruto´s turn to answer. "Yup, Iruka-sensei. Asuma-sensei and Jiji tested us with these … ah … Chakra Papers. Mine split in half and thus they said I have a wind affinity. But my lovely brother here had gone over the top once again. When he channeled a bit of Chakra into his Paper it turned to ash immediately. They said he has an extremely strong fire affinity, stronger than most have ever seen Jiji said. But never mind that, I will still beat him." He exclaimed the last part loudly and proudly, while he pointed his thumb to himself.

"Hehe, you may want to reconsider that. Asuma-sensei said that I would get the chance to learn his special Jutsu if I manage to perform good at my Kenjutsu training. Well that´s about it Iruka-sensei, that´s all the training we got thus far and we will only get more while we proceed. Don´t you fear, despite our attitudes we really are strong and when the Exams come around in some years, we will be more than ready." A thumbs up and a grin accompanied that last statement.

Iruka stood there simply flabbergasted. The two class clowns Naruto and Roxas just admitted to train harder than even most Genin do. To hell with the test in a few years, the way they are right now, they could probably pass it in a few months. He needed to have a talk with the Hokage about the Academy standards. And he would do it right now. "Ok boys, since you already have this exercise down perfectly, I will let you off the hook easily this time. But Naruto no more pranks and Roxas you have to stop covering for your brother. Now get going, it's a nice day, how about you head out and meet with some friends." Iruka smiled friendly at the boys and when Naruto started to cheer his grin got only wider. Naruto shot out of the room in the blink of an eye and left a grinning Iruka and a half embarrassed Roxas behind.

Roxas just shook his head and slowly made his way to the door. When he reached it he turned around once more and bid Iruka farewell with a few choice words. "Thanks for letting us go early Iruka-sensei. But I won´t stop to cover for my brother, that´s what brothers are for, to help each other, right? Well good-bye then, see you tomorrow in class Iruka-sensei." And with that he left the room and closed the door.

Iruka slowly packed away his things and when he was ready to leave he smiled at nothing. He whispered to himself then. "You´re right Roxas, it is the way brothers should be. Well now I just have to get to the Hokage, I think there will be some changes very soon."

(Konoha´s Academy, next morning)

"Welcome back class, as I can see everyone his her, so let´s begin. But first there are some announcements today, so please listen carefully. The Hokage has decided to make some changes in the training program our young Ninja´s will go through and you are the first class that will be taught in this new way. I will now explain this new training program you will go through from today onwards." By now the entire class had fallen silent and listened in anticipation, excitement and even a bit of fear or hope.

With a bit of satisfaction Iruka took in how intently the class listened to him and he enjoyed it for short, before he continued.

"You will have normal classes from Monday to Thursday, but only in the mornings. These classes will involve general knowledge like math, geography, and physics on Monday. On Tuesdays we will have Taijutsu training and spars. On Wednesday there will be Genjutsu theory and practice training. On Thursday finally we will have Chakra and Ninjutsu training.

The afternoons will be reserved for special classes on these days and you only have to attend at least one of these special classes in order to get a go ahead to the exam, which ones and how many you take is up to you. Monday afternoon is for Medical Ninjutsu and only those who have perfect Chakra Control should choose these class. Those of you who prefer a rather difficult course can go to Tuesday´s Fuinjutsu, the Art of Sealing, classes. Wednesday afternoon is reserved for Weapon Training, in these classes a wide variety of weapons will be covered, for example staffs and other close-range weapons, bows and throwing weapons and so on. Thursday is for the few of you, who want to specialize on one special weapon, for example Kenjutsu/the Art of the Sword, or Shurikenjutsu, or Bojutsu and many, many more.

Fridays will completely be spent outside, on several training grounds or in the forests surrounding the village. The goal of the exercises we have on each Friday is Survival Training and you will learn many techniques to survive in the wilderness. To build tents, build a campfire, find water and things to eat and a place to sleep at. Simply put we will learn how to live while you are outside of the village on missions.

So, I hope you understood everything I have told you. You will have the rest of the day off and tomorrow we will begin with our new regiment and you have to decide on what extra courses you will take. Make a wise decision and think about it for as long as possible. Tomorrow will be a new day and I´m sure you will make a good decision. Well enjoy your day off and I will see you tomorrow my students. Good Bye."

Iruka left the room shortly after and couldn´t suppress the grin that spread on his face at his little speech. Today had been a good day and he was sure the next years would be very interesting as well.

(Three and a half years later)

*Roxas' POV*

To say it bluntly the last years had been hell. Well not really hell, but I can´t remember the last day I didn´t fall to sleep out of pure exhaustion. But not only for, for the rest of the class as well, even Naruto who had seemingly unending reserves had been worked to the ground by not only the Academy, no Asuma-sensei, Jiji and some of our other Senseis had been rather hard as well.

But I will start from the beginning. When the Academy changed its program, there had been 35 people in our class, who was the first to experience this program. By the end of the year 5 of them had quit, 5 more were expelled by our instructors, because the Teachers had decided those five had been unfit to be Ninja. And they weren´t the last ones. Now we were down to fifteen, including three students from one of the higher classes that had decided to step down, and normally those fifteen would have easily passed the exam, but they had decided it was time for higher graduating requirements.

So while the normal Academy training was harder than before, it was also needed for the students to train outside of the normal training times. Sure we had one or two days off once in a while, but I think it's time for a vacation and thankfully I wasn´t the only one to think so. To say the Hokage had been surprised when I entered his office and made my proposal would be an understatement. But after a long explanation from my side and some questions from him, he had come around. Right now our class was meeting up for a week-long camping trip, but in order make it as close to reality as possible we were divided into teams.

The teams had been decided yesterday by luck and drawing numbers.

Team 1: Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame, Ino Yamanaka

Team 2: Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga, Rock Lee

Team 3: Tenten Buki, Sakura Haruno, Choji Akimichi

Team 4: Kiba Inuzuka, Neji Hyuga, Sai Hino

Team 5: Roxas Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Hanabi Hyuga

(Yeah I changed Hanabi to Hinata´s twin sister, but I´m the author so give me some freedom)

Right now I was on my way to the West Gate of the Village to meet up with my team. I wore a simply outfit consisting of a dark grey shirt with a silver cross-like (the Nobody symbol) symbol on it, the shirt was slightly covered by a half-closed black hooded jacket and a black sweatpants with a white stripe going down each leg. I had a simple black belt attached to my hip, on it were three bags and two scrolls. Another 'accessories' I had on me were two silver rings, one on each of my pointer fingers. Clad like this, I didn´t look like I was going on a camping trip, but I had everything with me I would need, I made sure of it at least five times.

Naruto and I had separated 5 minutes prior and he was on his way to meet his team as well. I hoped he would work together with his teammates. Well I didn´t know much about Hinata, since she was a rather shy one, but I was sure he could become friends with Lee, since both were rather hard-working and never give up guys. Well let´s hope for the best…

I was brought out of my thoughts when the gate came into view. My teammates were already there waiting for me and both had big backpacks with them. Well let´s see how this will turn out…

"Hey there, sorry I´m late, but I had to pick up our 'mission' from the Hokage. Well, are you ready to head out?" I asked them and regarded both with a big grin.

It was Hanabi who spoke up first. "Ano, I … I ah I´m ready." She was stuttering quite a bit and turned a light shade of red and looked to the ground.

The lazy boy next to her spoke up next. "I am as well, but tell me, where is your baggage?" Despite speaking he still had his eyes closed and still leaned on the village wall next to the gate. Lazy ass like always.

"Huh and here I thought you were a genius. I had taken classes in Fuinjutsu, Kenjutsu and one or two lessons in Medical Ninjutsu. Where do you think I have my things?" I couldn´t suppress the smirk that came to my face and neither could the lazy Nara as he figured it out and just shook his head.

It was Hanabi that brought us back on track. "Ano … I think we … we should get going, now that we are … are all ready and you have the mission with you Ro- Roxas-kun?"

"Yes have it all gotten here." I pointed to the two scrolls on my hip before I continued. "So I think you´re right Hanabi-chan, let´s get going." Both gave me a nod, but Hanabi tried to not look me into the eyes, and they shouldered their packs, while I just took point and we got going.

* * *

AN: As you see, I made Naruto a bit smarter and actually made Roxas near the same mental level as Naruto. From now on I will shift every once in a while between Naruto´s and Roxas´ POV. So don´t fear that I would concentrate too much on my OC. I will divide the story as equally as I can. Oh and the time skips won´t be as big as in this chapter ever again.

Well I´m out for now and will see you in less than a week, I promise. Till then fare well dear readers.


	3. Camping

AN: Well I hope you will like this chapter and review a bit more. While I have some things to say, I will wait till the end of the chapter, till then on with the story.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor Kingdom Hearts and nothing else I might use in this story. There is no profit, no benefits and nothing even remotely similar earned by this fic. I only do it for fun and to enjoy any form of criticism I might get.

* * *

(Forest surrounding Konoha, late afternoon)

*Naruto´s POV*

"Hey Hinata-chan do you see something now?" I couldn´t keep myself from being irritated. Hinata, Lee and I were at it for more than six hours now and still haven´t found a place that would be perfect for camping. Sure Hinata´s Byakugan had been a great help, but it seems the best spots were already taken and up till now we had seen glimpses of all the other teams, well except for Team 5. Teams 1 and 3 had taken refuge in secluded clearings and Team 4 occupied a cave at the foot of a mountain. While we had seen all this, we still hadn´t found a place for ourselves, currently Hinata was on point and was checking the surrounding area with her Byakugan once in a while.

"Ano, I think there could be a good spot around nine hundred meters northeast. It´s a clearing in the forest and surrounded by high trees from three sides and a mountain cliff in the last direction. There´s a river at the edge of the clearing and more than enough space to build a camp. I think this would be our best choice." While Hinata had still turned red a bit, she didn´t even stutter once. Sure her habit of stuttering had been bad at the beginning of our trip, but the longer we had travelled together the better it had gotten and after only six hours of being together her stutter was nearly gone. But there still was something strange about her behavior towards me, it was different from the behavior she showed Lee, but I just couldn´t press my finger on what it was. Ah well, I will figure it out later…

"Yosh, then I promise to get there within thirty seconds and if I can´t do this I promise to gather all the firewood needed for the night by myself." And with that only dust remained where Lee once had been.

I was about to shout after him, but a gentle hand that touched my arm stopped me and made me turn around. Hinata just had touched my arm, smiled and shook her head. The message was clear, let him go. I just smiled at her and we both started to walk to our possible campsite.

( A cliff overlooking Konoha Forest, thirty minutes prior)

*Roxas´ POV*

"Puh, finally done and I think this will do the trick. Hanabi-chan how is it going?" Our team had discussed where we would set up camp for quite some time and finally had decided for this plateau. It was a rocky land and void of trees in a range of two kilometers. We did set up camp in the middle of the plateau, so we could see for one kilometer in every direction, before an obstacle was in the way. To the east and north the forest stretched out, in the west a mountain stretched into the sky in a way that he was nearly unclimbable and lastly to the south was a cliff that was completely unclimbable for a normal person and even a Ninja would have problems. The location had many natural advantages and the only disadvantage could be that we would be open to every form of weather, like rain or the cold, without shelter. But I had taken care of it.

Like I already told my team I had taken lessons in Fuinjutsu in the Academy and not only there. Mizuki-sensei who taught Fuinjutsu said I was the best in class and he didn´t even know what I´m really capable of. My other Sensei in Fuinjutsu said that I was at least on Adept Level and probably already the Fourth best Sealer in Konoha. But this Jutsu I had used was the top of my abilities and wasn´t even a true Fuinjutsu to begin with. I had used a Barrier Ninjutsu in combination with Seals I had created myself, something I had thought of myself and my first own work. The barrier used four Seals burned into the ground at four significant points. The seals combine their power and connect thus creating a barrier that had a radius of five hundred meters and was invisible to everyone outside of it. Each of the seals had an own special purpose for the barrier and together they created something bigger than their individual usages. My first own creation _Four Pointed Seal Barrier: Sol_. It simply created an area in which the weather was constant, no changes in moisture, air pressure or anything else and it held out rain, snow and things like that, but still the air was exchanged with the outside and the temperature would still change.

Due to these disadvantages in my technique we still needed to build a campfire and use tents. While my next task was to gather fire wood and build the campfire, Hinata was currently setting up the tents and offered to make dinner afterwards. Shikamaru was currently away from the campsite to set up a perimeter and some traps and find a source of water close by.

Hanabi looked up from the final tent and turned a bit red, but answered without stuttering. "I have everything done now Roxas-kun. Do you need help with the firewood?" She said with a bit of pride and for a moment I had a strange feeling in my stomach, but I decided to ignore it for now.

"Nah, I will have it handled in a moment, but you can watch if you want. Oh, and good work with the tents, thanks." I gave her a smile and slowly started to walk over to the trees. I knew she stood behind me and decided to show off a bit. I did choose an about twenty meter high tree and stood directly in front of it. I sent a bit of energy in my rings and unsealed the two long-swords sealed into them. I grabbed them with trained ease and looked over my shoulder for one more second. "Stand back Hanabi-chan, this could bring about some splinters." Another smile when she stepped back some steps and I once again watched the tree intently.

I got into a strange stance. One sword was held diagonally in front of my body and the second sword was held backhanded to go diagonally across my back. Another grin came to my face when I remembered the time Hayate-sensei had shown me this style. I murmured the name of this technique with a grin still present on my face. "_Double Headed Dragon Dance_."

(Campsite Team 2, shortly before sundown)

*Naruto´s POV*

"Can I help you Hinata-chan? I´m done with the tents." That´s right, I had taken care of the tents and Hinata was currently preparing what little fresh ingredients we had with us to prepare a nice meal. Lee was off to gather enough firewood to last through the night and to prepare some traps and set up a perimeter. Hinata had first gathered a little bit firewood to make a cooking fire and had refilled our canteens. Now we only had to light the fire, set up the pot with the stew Hinata had prepared and wait for Lee to return.

"Ah, well maybe. I´m not that good with the _Fire Style: Lighter_ technique. Maybe you can do this for me." This was the first time Hinata had stuttered since a few hours ago. And I don´t know why she had, hm maybe some confidence problems. Let´s see if I can help her there.

"Hm, maybe I can help you with that, here take that lighter."

"A lighter, but I thought we should do it with the Jutsu."

"The lighter is empty, you know. There´s no fuel in it, but it still gives off a spark. In a way it´s a training method for fire techniques. You click the lighter, the spark appears and you use your energy to make fire out of the spark and keep it going."

"Oh, that really sounds easier and you said it was a way to train the Fire Style?"

"Yup, at least that´s what Asuma-sensei said and since I still have problems with the Fire Style I use it quite often to get a feeling for the fire."

"Thanks Naruto-kun. Now how about we start this fire started and get this meal on the way, I´m sure Lee-san will be here shortly and we should already be done by then."

"All right Hinata-chan let´s make the best meal ever, believe it!" A thumb up from me accompanied this exclamation. My only answer was a blushing Hinata and she mumbled something about doing this the right way. Don´t know what she was talking about, but we should get going before it gets too dark.

(Campsite Team 5, sundown)

*Roxas´ POV*

"What are you guys laughing at? Have you everything done yet?" Asked Shikamaru when he walked out of the forest.

"Nothing, Hahaha, Shikamaru-san." Hanabi tried to answer him, but just couldn´t stop laughing.

I didn´t even try to answer yet, I just tried to calm myself. When I finally had composed myself I gave him a full answer. "Nothing Shikamaru, we just talked a bit about the past and I told a story about my brother when he was younger. Now back on track, take something to eat, I swear Hanabi-chan is the best cook I´ve ever met. So did you set up the perception seals I gave you and the traps you wanted to set up."

Shikamaru took a seat and filled his bowl, which he had taken out of his backpack beforehand, with some of the stew Hanabi had made. "Yeah, it was such a drag, but I finished everything. Now how about you show us the mission Roxas."

"Oh right, nearly forgot about it. Here see for yourself." I took the scroll from my belt and broke the seal I had placed on it with a little bit of my blood, after I had bitten my thumb. I tossed the scroll to Hanabi and she unfolded it for both of them to see.

(Campsite Team 2, that night)

*Naruto´s POV*

Don´t know what woke me up that night, or better said I know, but it´s too embarrassing. Well to say it bluntly I felt homesick. But not Konoha, sure it had been my home ever since and would surely miss it, but it wasn´t that. I … I missed my family. All of them, but mostly I missed my brother. Sure I knew that I would see him again in some days, but it felt different without him around.

He had always been there since the first day. When some of the villagers treated me badly he stood up for me, when the annual 'fox hunt' on my birthday was breaking out he defended me with his life, when I felt down his will to keep going was what gave me the courage not to give up and finally he was always there. It´s as simple as this, we were nearly never separated for more than a few hours. He is close to me like a twin brother and now he is out of my range.

And what I really feared was that something might happen to him and I wouldn´t there to do something.

Also something strange about us, we always cared more for the other than ourselves. But he was always more relaxed than I was, but he also always said that I was concerned enough for both of us and that would be enough. Maybe it´s good that we are a bit different, after all everything is about balance, right?

My thoughts were interrupted when a blanket was laid over my shoulders and Hinata sat down next to me on the shore of the river that flowed close to our camp. She sat down next to me, rather close if I dare to say, and just looked into the water.

We sat there for about five minutes not saying anything, both enclosed in our own thoughts, but still enjoying the feeling of not being alone. But after five minutes I noticed that Hinata had started to shiver and placed the blanket she had given to me over the both of us, resulting in us getting even closer.

For some moments she seemed shocked if her expression was anything to go by, but then she relaxed and a smile graced her beautiful face, wait where did that thought come from …?

"Thanks." It had been nearly too silent to hear, but I still had noticed this simple word coming from the girl next to me.

For once I decided to use the manners the Sarutobi family had nearly beaten into me and quieted down, till my voice was nearly on the same volume as Hinata had been just now. "No problem, you brought the blanket to even begin with, if anything I should thank you. So, thanks Hina-chan." Seconds too late I noticed the forgotten syllable and when I noticed I just prayed that I wouldn´t be hit because of my stupidity.

It turned out that my fears had been for nothing when Hinata answered in the same way she had spoken before. "No problem either Naru-kun." I think I don´t have to mention that Hinata turned red at this simple sentence, but this time my own face color wasn´t that far behind her. And it only got worse when she scooted a bit closer and was now leaning onto me. Out of instinct I laid an arm around her side (nothing lewd you perverts, this isn´t one of Ero-Sennin´s books) and despite this position being extremely embarrassing, we still both enjoyed it and once again stayed silent for some minutes. That is until Hinata spoke up once more. "Naru-kun what were you doing out here, if I may ask?"

I thought about how to answer her for some seconds, before I simply decided to go with the truth would be best. "Well, ahm … how to say it. Ah well, to say it bluntly I was worrying about my brother. It´s not that he is not capable of handling himself, but it´s just … argh this is hard to say. Do you by any chance know what I mean Hina-chan?"

"Actually I know exactly what you mean Naru-kun. I do the same about my sister and she is very capable of handling of handling herself, but as her sister I just can´t stop worrying about her. That´s why I´m awake right now too."

"Hm, well now that I think about it, my brother has your sister with him and I´m sure she will take good care of him. Right Hina-chan?"

"Well if you think about it that way, I think I can Hanabi leave in Roxas-kun´s hands for now. Actually I feel a lot better now, thanks Naru-kun."

"Nothing to thank me for Hina-chan. Now how about we get to bed now, we have a mission to fulfill tomorrow?"

"Sounds good Naru-kun, by the way how will we scare of those wolves, any ideas by chance?"

"Not right now, but I´m sure we can think of something tomorrow. Here take my hand." With that I stood up and held my hand out for Hinata to take. She took it without hesitation and I helped her up. Without more words I took the blanket and we left back to our camp.

When I later lay in my tent I just couldn´t stop myself from thinking about the feeling of her little and smooth hand into mine. We had held hands on the whole way back. And it only got better when I touched my cheek and remembered the brief moment before Hina-chan had vanished in her tent, when her soft lips met my cheek. I never slept better in my whole life than in this night, believe it.

(Next morning, Team two´s camp)

*still Naruto´s POV*

I woke up refreshed and simply at peace with everything. When I remembered the events of last night a slight blush and a huge grin came to my face. While I´m still not completely sure what my feelings for Hinata are, I now had a pretty good picture and could figure it out if I wanted to. But I decided to let the topic rest for, since we still had a mission to fulfill. Once we have completed it, I will work on that 'problem'.

For now I took a peek to the outside and especially on the weather. With my findings, which was a rather cold weather and a feeling of rain in the air, and the mission in mind I decided on my clothes for the day. That reminds me that I still have to thank Rox for the scroll he gave me, sure Sealing Scrolls were common tools in the Ninja World, but these homemade scrolls from Rox could carry many more things and also were easier to use at all. For example the scroll he had given me and I had taken now contained over fifty complete outfits. To unseal one you just have to concentrate on the one you want to wear and sent a little spike of energy into the Seal. Resealing things was even easier and to do so you only needed to place the clothes on the scroll and send a minimal spark of energy into the seal. Now clad in a dark green sweatpants and a black sweater covered by a white hooded coat that had a flame design on the bottom, Jiji had given me this coat on my last birthday so I valued it greatly, I was prepared for the day and stepped out of my tent.

The others were already up and about and after a light breakfast containing of ration bars and water, we prepared to leave for our mission. And after we had covered our camp thoughtfully and laying some more traps as security matters we headed out to a pasture that was rather close to our camp. Our mission was simple: Guard the sheep on this pasture from wolves, who had bothered the owners of the sheep since a week ago and if possible kill or drive away said wolves.

But we were not aware that this mission description was only half correct and just when we were about to settle down and wait for the wolves to appear, everything went to hell and our first mission did go extremely wrong …

(An hour after dawn, Campsite of Team 5)

*Roxas´ POV*

"Oh, good morning there Hanabi-chan. Have you slept well?" I didn´t open my eyes and I didn´t move from the lotus position I was sitting in. For an outsider it would seem like I was really meditating, but there are some differences between meditating and simply relaxing, which I was doing right now.

"Hm, actually yeah I did sleep well, but I´m not really a morning person, so forgive me if I come over a bit rough." Was Hanabi´s sleepily reply, that had been interrupted once by a yawn, while she sat down next to me.

In front of us the remains of the fire were still glowing, just like I had predicted they would and now that someone beside me was awake it would be time to give the dying fire some fuel. Begrudgingly I stood up from the spot I had occupied for the last half hour and walked over to the remains of the pile of fire wood I had 'gathered' yesterday. "No problem at all, oh and Hanabi-chan you should take something to eat before it gets cold." That´s right, I had prepared breakfast, nothing fancy just some eggs I had sealed away beforehand and three little fishes I had managed to catch this morning. Also the cold water of the mountain river had been good to get me to really wake up. Not that I had ever slept long to begin with, I normally did rise with the first light of the morning.

When I had finished getting the fire going again, Hanabi was clearly more awake and was already finishing her meal.

For an hour or two we engaged in light conversation, shared laughs and got to know each other, before finally Shikamaru decided to get up. Okay maybe I kicked his tent and caused it to collapse on him, inadvertently of course. We spoke a bit about what to do today and in the end decided that Shikamaru would be on lookout and scout out our surroundings a bit more, while I and Hanabi would start with the mission.

Our mission sounded rather easy: Develop a new technique (preferable a Jutsu) that shall be included in the Academy teachings.

Sounds easy, but we soon found out that it would be rather hard to really accomplish. First of was to come up with some ideas on what the Jutsu should do. Then we have to come up with ways to accomplish the goal our Jutsu had. And finally combine the idea behind the Jutsu and the execution in some simple hand signs.

But the problems came at the first part already. Sure we had some ideas on what to do, but the problem was it were too many to try them all. We came up with a solution and thought about what Jutsus the Academy already did teach. We had some simple survival Jutsu, some Jutsu to get out of a tight spot or do a diversion and some basics in attack Jutsu. What the Academy lacked was a Jutsu that would give a Genin the edge he would need to survive AND win a hard fight.

Together Hanabi and I came up with a simple idea: How about to blind your enemy? An enemy who can´t see is a rather easy target and thus could possibly even be defeated by a Genin.

The next problem was how to do so. There are many ways to blind an enemy, but we would have to find a rather easy one, one way every Genin, no matter what his or her strengths and weaknesses are, could perform. We could use Genjutsu to make the enemy´s brain think he has gone blind, thus making him see nothing, since his brain thinks he is seeing nothing. But then again not every Genin is able to use Genjutsu and most easier Genjutsu can easily be broken. Or we could use a Ninjutsu, which could not be broken, but would either take much Chakra to have an area effect, or take´s little Chakra, but needs to be casted on the enemy through direct contact. Both options weren´t the best and could easily be more than a Genin, much less an Academy student, could handle. There were other possible ways as well, like poison or a seal or something completely different. In short deciding on how to do it would probably the hardest decision.

We had finally limited it to three possible ways when we were rudely interrupted.

"Roxas, Hanabi I would thank god if it wasn´t to troublesome, that I finally found you. Listen, we got a couple of problems right now. First of I found traces of another Ninja camp. I looked around a bit and from the few traces they left I came to the conclusion that it was the camp of Team 2. It seems that they have aborted their old camp, which had been located at the foot of the cliff that is south of our camp."

"Wait Shikamaru you mean to tell me that Team 2 had their camp set just over a kilometer away from us? How could we not notice this? Ah, you know what never mind, but how is this a problem?"

"It isn´t and normally I wouldn´t even have mentioned it, but later on I found another set of tracks and followed it. I found a camp full of bandits. I spied on them for as long as I could and still avoid detection, which would have been much too troublesome. There are at least forty of them and it seems like they are going to be on the move very soon. I don´t even want to know what happens if they cross paths with Team 2. Add to that the fact that a storm is coming and you have a picture of why I called it problems." At the end Shikamaru had lost his normal demeanor and actually looked quite troubled with the things he had found out.

"This isn´t a problem, this could very well become a disaster …" I had mumbled this part only to myself, but it seems my teammates had picked up on it and now both of them looked to be deep in thought. I couldn´t say that I wasn´t in the same set of mind, I mean this could easily become a disaster. Damn.

No one of us spoke for some minutes while we did go over the facts we had, each on their own and thought about what we could do about the situation at hand. Hanabi who had stayed quite till now was the first to answer. "Ano, I think we should try to meet up with Team 2 and see if we can help them, if they don´t need our help we can still leave them alone afterwards. At least we should inform them about the bandits."

Shikamaru stayed quite, but gave a nod to Hanabi to indicate his agreement. I stayed quite as well, but not out of disagreement, I was already formulating a plan on what to do and where to go.

One last deep breath top settle my nerves and then I began to speak and in a way to give orders, don´t know who decided that I would be Team Captain or if I was even aware of the fact that I was giving orders at that moment or not. I just did it. "Okay team, we are going to pack up and leave the area. I have a hunch that Team 2 had headed east, I will explain it while we are on the move. Our objective is to find Team 2 and if possible we will try not to engage. But we will worry about that later, for now let´s move." I got two nods as my answers and understood what they meant quite well. Within the blink of an eye we were on the move and worked fast and precise.

Team 5 was moving out and we had an important mission to complete. Let´s just hope our first mission doesn´t go extremely wrong…

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AN: First I will take care of my reviewers.

MYK-ON, thanks for the encouragement and I hope you enjoyed the other chapters as well.

Guest, if you don´t want to read the story than why do you even bother to write a review? Well I said I would like some criticism, but 'I don´t like OC´s'? Come on that´s ridicolous and not very helpful. And here I was thinking inserting an OC belongs to the author freedom. Ah well, if you think you can do better, than I would really like to see you try. I always love to read other stories.

While the first half of this second review is rather unhelpful, he still raised a good point in the second part of his review.

I said that I would use pieces of Kingdom Hearts and that´s true. But these will only appear in the first and in the last chapter of this story. In between only the name of my OC belongs to the Kingdom Hearts series. Thus I think it isn´t necessary to move this to the Crossover Section.

Oh and to give you something to think over: I plan to make this a trilogy. First is the Naruto story, which is this very story. The second volume will be the years in between the original Naruto series and Shippuuden, from both Naruto´s and Roxas´ point of view. And the final installment will be my version of Shippuuden.

Now I´ve rambled enough and everything that´s left to say is, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you will leave a review. My next update will probably be within the next week or two. Till then dear readers.


	4. Mission gone wrong

AN: Well here it is, another chapter for you and sorry for being late, but I think I will only manage to update every other week now. I will make it up through with longer chapters.

Well not much to say today, so just enjoy the chapter and leave a review. Till next time dear readers.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor Kingdom Hearts and nothing else I might use in this story. There is no profit, no benefits and nothing even remotely similar earned by this fic. I only do it for fun and to enjoy any form of criticism I might get.

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*Roxas' POV*

Remind me again, how did it come to this? Oh yeah, my team and I wanted to help Naruto, Hinata and Lee, because there was a group of bandits in the area. Seems like this didn´t turn out very well.

"Naruto." I whispered this part very quietly. Well my brother who stood right next to me and the rest of his team that stood with their back to us could still hear me. But not exactly loud enough for any of the bandits that surrounded us. "You have to take your team and get the hell out of here. My team is providing some distraction if needed and I'm sure I can hold them off for a bit. Just go." The last part had come out a bit louder than I had intended and suddenly the bandits were advancing on us again.

One of the fifty thugs stepped forward, from the way he held himself and his clothes, which were in a slightly better condition that the ones his men wore, I assumed he was the leader. "Now, now. How about you hand over all of your goods and the girl and we can all go home peacefully." His voice sounded sincere, but his smug grin and his eyes betrayed his true intentions. Not that we would have taken his offer anyway.

My voice was still very low, so that only my companions could understand me when I spoke again. "Naruto, I will say it once again. Take your team and get out of here. Don't worries Shikamaru has a plan. I will make an opening over there, hold them off a bit and we will all get out of here unharmed. Spontaneously on three, ok?" I don´t know if they had caught the slight movement I had made with my eyes to indicate our escape route or if they completely agreed with the plan, as long as they go along with it. I just hoped that they would react fast enough when the time came. Once again I was thankful that I had attached my weapon pouch to my belt, so I was able to slip one hand into it without the enemy noticing it. Just when I finally touched two of my weapons I yelled out and sprang into action. "THREE!"

Everything went very fast after I had shouted, after all speed was my greatest advantage over most people. Naruto stood to my right, so it was only natural to go to the left. I had taken out two Kunai out of my pouch and had thrown them in the same movement. They embed themselves in the ground and the explosions occurred on contact. I had attached a homemade Explosion Tag on each of the Kunai and the explosions were a bit bigger than a customized one would be capable of.

The moment the Kunai had left my hand, my swords had already appeared out of their Seals and I had once again grabbed them with practiced ease. Since I had already pumped Chakra into my legs beforehand, I managed to jump right into the explosions with only one leap. When the smoke of the explosions cleared there were five thugs unconscious and I was putting two more into the same state with the blunt sides of my swords. Naruto and his team had vanished.

We hadn't really talked about the plan in all detail, maybe they had only understood half of it, but when it came down to it, they had reacted perfectly and now phase two of Shikamaru's plan was coming. My part in this phase sounded rather simple, but was probably the hardest. I had to keep their attention on me for at least a full minute. Sure I could just try to talk to them, but after I had incapacitated seven of their men I don't think they would like to talk this out.

So the hard way it is. I jumped back some meter and got into my stance, the sword in my right hand was held backhanded behind my body and my left hand sword diagonally in front of me. It was just the beginning stance, but with my blades that way and a footwork that rivaled Hayate-sensei´s I could easily defend and attack in each direction in the fraction of a second. But what worried me was if I could really do it? I mean this was my first real fight and when bad comes to worse I might have to kill someone. Could I really do it?

But then I remembered something Hayate-sensei taught me once. Since I was the only one who always attended Kenjutsu-training on Thursday afternoon (the specialized weapon training) he always had or at least took enough time for me. While he taught me more and more moves with the blades and let me memorize the basic stances and moves from many styles, I once had a question for him. How could I really use this in actual battle? I mean it is good to know some styles, in fact without it you can't even dream about becoming a professional swordsman, but in real battle there was just no time to think about which style to use and what it looked like exactly. He had just laughed and told me to not think.

Over the next few weeks I had tried just that and I quickly came to realize that my muscles seemed to remember all the movements by heart. The more often I had used a move, the better I could do it without thinking about it. That was awesome. Then I tried the next step and didn´t even think about how to move at all, this seriously had given me some bruises the first few times. But after the first few tries I noticed my reflexes well like 'suggesting' a certain movement. It was all about letting it go and let my body do what it felt was right. Sure sometimes I still stepped in and planned out a whole fight, but by now I was confident enough in my body to do what was right.

And that´s the way I will handle this fight. Muscle memory and reflexes, let my body move on its own accord and afterwards I will wonder about what I have done. For now, let stage two begin!

*Naruto's POV*

Remind me again, how did it come to this? Oh right, my team had just arrived the pasture and have gotten comfortable, when Roxas jumped out of the tree and started to explain something about bandits. Curse our rotten luck. Because just at that moment said bandits came out of the forest and before we could even think about escaping they had surrounded us. Hinata while shaking a bit had taken a defensive stance and her back was barely touching mine. Lee had taken a stance too, I think it is called Strong Fist, but whatever it was it clearly was a more aggressive stance. Then there was Roxas who just looked like he wasn´t bothered in the least bit with this situation, but I could see the tension in him and I caught the slight movement of his hand going to his weapon pouch.

But I was just standing there, it had all happened so fast that I was barely catching on. It is not that I am dumb or slow, it just was a tad bit surprising, okay? But beside the point, I quickly got into my own stance and snapped to attention when Roxas started to whisper. Sure I only understood about half of what he said, but that still gave me a good idea about what he was about to do. I was about to argue, to make him change his plans, but he didn´t give me any chance. He yelled out "Three!" and suddenly I was on the move out of pure instinct.

We had barely made it into the woods when we were stopped by Hanabi, she shortly explained Shikamaru´s plan, but I wasn´t really listening. I was still trying to catch up with what had happened in the circle. It just seemed too random. I snapped to attention when she explained my part, it sounded simple and good, perfect.

"Go to the east side of the circle, attack when you hear us." Simple and straight to the point, I already liked her.

As far as I know I would attack from the east, Hanabi and Hinata from the south (where we had left the circle), Shikamaru had the west covered and Lee should take the north side (he was the fastest out of us and had the best chances to get there in time). I just gave Hanabi a nod and headed for my position.

I didn´t have to wait long after I had reached my destination. I was barely able to make three Shadow Clones, before I heard the sounds of fighting from the south and a battle cry from the north, which could only belong to Lee (I mean who calls a simple kick 'Dynamic Entry'?). That probably was my cue and thus I attacked.

My Shadow Clones each let loose two hands of Shuriken (that means thirty all in all) and used the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu to multiply them by ten. Not all of the Shuriken hit, to be precise I think only a little part of them really hit, but that´s beside the point. They had fulfilled their purpose and had created an opening in the circle of thugs. Not thinking twice I pulled out my Trench Knives, which I had gotten from Asuma-sensei on my last birthday, and jumped into the fray.

The next minutes seem a bit hazy for me, I remember fighting and I can still remember the wounds I gave each enemy, but that´s it. That doesn´t bother me much however, the only thing maybe is that I wished that I had been faster.

When I heard the cry of pain from the middle of the circle I simply stopped mid-attack. For the next seconds my Shadow Clones covered me luckily, because I just stared at what was happening there.

Roxas had been captured and he was hold in place by not less than five of these bandits, while their leader, which I had already seen earlier as I now noticed, stood before him. I knew I would be too late. I knew that he would get hurt, if nothing worse happened …

Just like this night six years ago, when he had nearly been killed …

I could still see it clearly, the mob of villagers coming for me on my birthday, the weapons coming for me … and then Roxas got in front of me … I don´t even know how he got there in the first place, but he managed to save me and nearly lost his life in the process, he may have lost it if I hadn´t had donated my blood for him. That was the day we became brothers by blood too.

I can barely remember the Anbu who had chased the villagers away, but I can still remember the blood, all this blood, my brother´s blood …

That´s it, that´s the moment when something snapped in me, somehow I could barely restrain myself when the picture of … of that night appeared in my head. Chakra suddenly came to life around me Trench Knives and in one desperate moment I had managed to master Asuma-sensei´s technique **Flying Swallow** which I had tried to learn for months now.

Well time to put it to good use. I stormed forward to reach my brother in time, not caring what or who came in my way, the Trench Knives took care of it. The odds were bad and I knew it, I probably wouldn´t reach Roxas in time, no matter how desperate I tried to do so. Once again shows just what I know about my brother, I shouldn´t have already counted him out like that. Well it takes more to take out an Uzumaki it seems …

*Roxas' POV*

How did it come to this again? Oh yeah, I let my body take over and did let my mind shut down nearly completely. Sure this had helped greatly and I had taken out a good number of thugs. However losing my focus like that had also cost me in the end, since one thug had managed to sneak up to me from behind. I can still feel the splinters of wood in my back from where he had hit me with his club. Now I was held up by no less than four thugs (one on each upper arm and on held each of my wrists), a fifth behind me, I think the same one who had hit me and the leader of the bandits stood on front of me.

"So you little punk, comfortable are we? Personally I hope not. It seems you have wounded and killed a good amount of my men, it is only fair that I now do you the same favor." I barely noticed that the leader was talking to me, since my mind was still a bit hazy after the last hit. But I still noticed that the thugs held my arms outstretched and held on tight to my hands, good way to prevent me from using any Jutsu, neither could I use my swords, which I had lost my grip on after I had been hit and now they laid on the ground in front of me uselessly.

The leader now held a knife in his hand, I didn´t even notice this till now, and he was slowly coming closer to me …

So that´s it? That´s how it all ends? Will I really … die?

While my mind was still hazy and my possible death approaching, memories started to play out in my mind or better said one specific memory …

_(Flashback)_

_It had been late afternoon, man already two years have passed since then. I was sitting under a tree and watched Naruto train with hundreds of his clones on all different kinds of things, such as chakra Control, the waterfall cutting exercise and so on, Asuma-sensei was with them and gave some pointers. My Chakra reserves had never been as big as Naruto´s and thus I had to make a break for now. That´s when the Hokage, or as Naruto and I called him 'Jiji', came over. He stood beside me and watched Naruto train for some moments, before he looked over to me when I spoke._

"_Ahm, I have a question and maybe you can help me."_

"_Sure, ask whatever you want and I will try to answer. But remember some things have to wait for the right moment."_

"_Yeah I know Jiji." I had asked him some years ago why the villagers seemed to hate Naruto and he had just told me that I would have to wait for the right moment to know. I never bothered asking him again. But this time I am sure he can help me. "Well, I have seen you and Asuma-sensei use Jutsu with only one hand seal one time or another. And well, I have been thinking. Is there a way to use a Jutsu without any hand seals at all?"_

_I have only seen the old man shocked once, he always seemed like he knew everything that was going on in the village and was never really surprised when something out of the ordinary happened. The one time I saw him shocked was now. He quickly covered it through and his face became stoic again, but his eyes still betrayed him, he looked like he was assessing me. I felt really uncomfortable, at least till he let out a deep sigh and his complete demeanor became calm again._

"_Roxas, you really surprise me sometimes you know. But to answer your question, yes there is a way to use one or two Jutsu without any hand seals at all. But to reach this point you would have to train said Jutsu for a very long time. In fact it would be best if the Jutsu you tried to use was one of your own creation, thus making it easier for you to mold the Chakra in the right way. How about you try to make an own Jutsu, you could use the idea behind Asuma´s Flying Swallow? I heard you got that one down not too long ago."_

"_Yeah, I really have it down and thanks Jiji, I will think about it. Could I- I mean, if I- well, could I ask-"_

"_Whatever help you might need, I am willing to give. Just ask me if you need something." The old man smiled at this and once again I could see the nice old man I came to see as my grandfather._

"_Thanks Jiji, now I have to get this show on the road. Well, where to start through …"_

_(End Flashback)_

That´s right! I still have one ace up my sleeve, well time to put the last two years to good use.

Me and dying here? As if!

I had known that I would need something like this, after all wielding two swords did mean no hand seals at all, but I think with this one I can make up for it.

The leader of those thugs was now three meters away from me, perfectly within my range. I didn´t give any indication that I was starting anything, besides the concentrated look on my face, after all it was quite hard to mold the Chakra in the right way without hand seals and even without saying anything at all. But I got it going.

My arms erupted in flames, in fact everything down from my shoulders couldn´t even been seen anymore because of the flames surrounding it. The flames continued even after my arms had ended and all in all I now had five meters long whip-like appendages coming out of each of my shoulders, each as thick as my whole upper body. The flames of course didn´t burn me and I had made sure to only wear fire-proof clothes after I had started training with this technique.

The thugs had let go after my arms erupted in flames and my body once again moved on its own in a very well-trained way, since my mind was still concentrated on technique and only one thought was going through my head '**Fire Style: ****Wing Slash of the Fire Dragon**'. My arms moved in a wide arc till they were crossed in front of my body, the whip-like appendages moving in the exact way.

I caught a movement in front of me shortly after the fire had started and quickly figured out what it meant. The leader of the thugs had started to make hand seals the moment the fire erupted and in a second he had finished three seals and opened his mouth wide to spout of some form of mud in front of him. I quickly figured out that this was **Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall**, a pretty basic earth Jutsu. But still this man knew a Jutsu, this fact meant he had some form of Ninja training, which meant he was a threat. Threats have to be taken out.

A simple thought, but still my body adapted to the new situation easily and even mid-attack I dropped to one knee and when the attack ended I rose up again.

I stood like I had before, but this time no one held my hands and I held both of my blades instead of nothing. The earth wall had easily crumbled when it came into contact with my fairly strong fire attack and so in front of me a radius of five meter was covered in flames. I had burned the four thugs that had held me pretty badly and their leader with nearly the same wounds dropped to the ground shortly after I stood upright again. He was dead before he even hit the ground.

When I saw him use a Jutsu my mind had labeled him a threat and my body had reacted accordingly. When I had stood up, I had made a slashing motion with both of my swords and this had been the result. But while the rational side of my mind said on and on that it was okay and I had done what needed to be done. But still not my whole mind agreed to that and before long I was in an inner debate about right or wrong. I mean I have just killed somebody and they say the first time is the hardest. I was literally frozen where I stood and shock was written clearly over my whole face, while blood slowly dropped from the tips of my swords.

What .. What … What have I done?

I was about to go into panic, when I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around my sword raised again to defend myself against any threat. But there was none, only Naruto who blocked my sword with the trench knife in his free hand. His other hand lay on my shoulder and he looked me directly into the eyes. His expression was extremely calm and his eyes betrayed worry and something else I couldn´t lay my finger on.

When he finally spoke his voice reflected what his eyes already told me. Worry and calmness. "Are you okay Rox?"

I was about to lash out at him, tell him that nothing was okay, I killed someone. But when I looked into his eyes I just couldn´t do it. The longer I looked, the calmer I got. And after a very silent minute I came to turns with what had happened and decided that it really was okay. I managed a small grin and give him a nod.

He squeezed my shoulder shortly before he turned around and walked over to Hinata and Hanabi. When I looked around I noticed that the fighting had stopped completely by now. Seems like we won, but it was a win that came with a cost …

*Naruto's POV*

When I saw Rox activate his Jutsu '**Wing Slash of the Fire Dragon**', I knew exactly what would happen, after all I had seen him develop and train this Jutsu for the last two years. I was however slightly shocked, when I saw one bandit come up behind Rox, like I said I knew Rox's Jutsu pretty well and I realized that the bandit came up on Rox's blind side, there was no way he could see him, let alone dodge or block the incoming attack. With that in mind I moved to intercept.

The **Flying Swallow** technique was still active around my trench knives and with it I made quick work of the bandit. I came up from behind, in said bandit's blind spot, and a quick slash with one of my trench knives to the back of his neck completely severed his spine. There wasn´t much blood, since the wound was a clean-cut and not that big, but still deep enough to get the job done. The bandit was probably dead before he even hit the ground.

I surveyed the situation around me, after I had made sure there was no more danger in my immediate surroundings. To my left Hinata and Hanabi had already finished their opponents and both seemed to be fine, but I still saw something that worried me greatly, Hinata had tears flowing down her face and Hanabi was consoling her. I would need to do something about this soon, but first I needed to make sure we were safe. On my right side or better said on the north side of the 'circle', Lee had just knocked the last of his enemies unconscious and now proceeded to secure them with a rope, where he got that rope from I have no idea. I turned around and behind me I could see my Shadow Clones moving around and patching up some of the wounds I had inflicted on the thugs earlier. While I´m no good with Medical Jutsu, I am more than able to use bandages and healing ointments and by extend my Shadow Clones too. All in all I think most of the bandits will survive this 'little' encounter.

Finally I looked back to Rox and out of the corner of my eye I could still see the thug who had tried to attack Rox earlier on, the one I had taken care of. One look was enough to tell that there was nothing I could do for him. For a moment I felt sick to my stomach, I mean I have killed a person, but then I remembered why I did it and I knew that I would do it all over again. After all it is my duty to protect my brother.

Speaking of my brother, he stood absolutely still after he had finished his Jutsu and when I looked over his shoulder I saw why. He had to kill too. He was clearly more troubled by it than I was, he needed me now. I laid a hand on his shoulder and thankfully I was quick enough to block his incoming attack with the trench knife in my other hand. I showed no signs that I even noticed the attack, I just looked him into the eyes and asked him if he was okay. Maybe a stupid question, since I could clearly see that he was not, but it was the only thing that came to my mind. For some moments he stood still and gave no signs what he was thinking at all. I understood through and just stayed silent as well, I just tried to be there for him in the only possible way.

After some very silent and tense minutes, I saw something shift in his eyes and he even managed a small grin and told me everything was okay. While I knew it was not, I also knew it would be, he just needed time. I gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze before I decided to go over to Hanabi and Hinata, giving him the space he apparently needed right now.

When I was walking over to the two girls, I got a glimpse on Shikamaru who came running out of the woods, without missing a beat he ran over to Lee, he whispered something to him and those two ran into the woods shortly after. I had half a mind to go after them, but I decided to stay and help here when I saw the look Hanabi was giving me. She still tried to console Hinata, but it seemed rather bad. I decided to be the good guy and take over for her, but in exchange I nodded in Rox's direction. She gave me a nod and started to walk over to Rox, while I sat down beside Hinata, who was on her knees and was crying rather openly, and gave her a sideways hug.

I don´t know how long we sat there before she started to talk and it took me even longer to calm her down enough and assure her that what we had to do had been for our friends and I would do the same thing again if it meant protecting anyone. All in all we sat at the edge of the battleground for nearly two hours. We talked and talked, important things, little promises and sometimes completely random stuff. Don´t know if I managed to calm her down, or if she just needed time and someone to talk to. But when we stood up she was back to her old self and I was really glad about it too. Sure I only really got to know her when we started this 'camping trip', before then she had only been a classmate, although a nice one, but now I already saw her as a friend. And there was this strange feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever she talked to me, oh well I will figure it out later. For now we had to get going if we wanted to reach Konoha before nightfall.

I don´t know who made the decision that we would go back to Konoha, thinking back I believe there was no real decision, we just prepared to leave and head to Konoha without anybody spelling it out for us. It just was the most sensible thing to do.

Roxas had sealed away all of our packs in a scroll of his and with Hanabi's help they had picked up some weapons and other stuff we could use or need later on, Hanabi had stayed with him the whole time, don´t know what had happened between those two, but they seemed to be closer. Shikamaru and Lee tried to cover our tracks after they have come back. What they had to do in the woods I didn´t know, well they told me later, but that was four years later … and that´s a story for another time. My clones finished patching up the bandits (and knocking out some when they woke up too early) and Hinata and I made a last round, she even healed two of the bandits with Healing Jutsu.

When everyone was ready we headed out, thinking back no one gave any form of signal, we just moved as one. While our speed wasn´t too high, we still moved fast enough to lose possible followers. With that speed I estimated that we would reach Konoha shortly after sundown. Let´s hope Jiji is still in his office, because I think he would like to hear this story …

(Konohagakure, Hokage´s office, late evening)

*Third Person POV*

It was official now, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the mighty and wise Hokage of Konohagakure, had now the worst headaches in his life. Well maybe not the worst, the one he got after Orochimaru had defected had been pretty bad and don´t even get him started about the day after the Kyubi attack, but this one still was in the Top Three. In front of him were six academy students, who not only had defeated a whole group of bandits, around fifty or sixty men (more than 200 if you asked Naruto, he liked to exaggerate) and came out of it nearly unharmed. He was sure the council will make a fuss over that. Then there were Shikamaru and Lee who had found 'something interesting', well he would find out about that one very soon.

"First I want to congratulate you all for accomplishing your first mission and performing so well."

"Ahm, sorry Jiji but my team didn´t exactly finish our mission…" Roxas, this kid had always been too intelligent for his own good and he questioned everything he was told. Not that this was a bad thing.

"I am well aware of that fact, but I am also sure given enough time, you can finish that one as well. How about three days?" After an affirmative nod from all three members of Team 5 I proceeded. "While that may be true, I also have to inform you that after your report I decided to make a mission out of this. Hunting a group of bandits, taking them out and still keeping them alive, I would say that at least counts as a C-ranked mission. Furthermore has Team 2 managed to perform their mission even without knowing all facts. As Hokage of this village I have to say that I am very proud of all of you. I will make sure each of you is given the payment for their missions tomorrow, till then you should probably get going. However I think Shikamaru and Lee still have something left to tell me, the rest of you can go now."

The four who were released stood up and walked out, saying their thanks and wishing a good night to the persons left in the office. Roxas told Shikamaru to come by training ground thirteen tomorrow and then vanished as well, closing the door behind him. The Hokage made a simple seal and privacy seals sprung up around the office. After he had finished this he laid his eyes on Shikamaru and Lee, every trace of friendliness from earlier had vanished from his face and he had put up the mask of the Hokage again.

"Now Shikamaru I would really like to know what you have found and I also want your input for this Lee. Now tell me, do you know what was really going on out there?"

Shikamaru groaned once, but when he looked up and in the eyes of the Hokage he seemed determined and troubled at the same time, weird mixture. "As troublesome as it is, but yeah I found out what they were really after and I have evidence. I even took Lee with me to testify my findings. But I can promise you won´t like it…"

The Hokage just knew that this would be a long night … and his headache was probably about to get worse.

(Outside of the Hokage Tower)

*Roxas' POV*

After we had left the Hokage Tower we separated. Naruto decided he wanted something to eat and he hoped that Ichiraku's might still be open and Hinata had decided to go along with him. Neither me nor Hanabi were hungry so we had said our goodbyes to those two. Since I had nothing better to do and it was the right thing to do, I decided to be a gentlemen and now accompanied Hanabi on her way home. Her backpack was comfortably slung over my shoulder, I had given everyone their packs back already. The walk was a rather silent one, but not uncomfortable so. After the events earlier today it seemed nice to just walk in peace and quiet. When we reached the massive walls of the Hyuga compound I gave her back her backpack and reminded her to meet me at training ground thirteen tomorrow. She thanked me for the company and wished me a good night.

But before she could vanish to the inside I decided to say what was on my heart. "Thanks Hanabi-chan, I mean for staying with me the whole time after … after what had happened earlier."

I could barely see her in the darkness that had already settled over the village, but I thought I saw a glimpse of red. I probably imagined it, after all why should she blush at this? "Think nothing of it. Really it was nothing and-"

"It was not nothing." I may have been a bit rude with my interruption and I saw her wince, so I decided to speak in a softer voice. "It was not nothing … it meant much to me and helped me, it really did. So please don´t say it was nothing, because it is important to me. You are a really good friend. So once again, thanks."

I heard her mumble something that sounded suspiciously like 'maybe more' and I am no idiot, I knew what she probably meant with it. But I am not sure what to do about this. I was so deep in my thoughts that I was extremely surprised when I felt her soft lips touch my cheek, before she backed off again. She quickly said "I have done it gladly, see you tomorrow, good night Roxas-kun." And then just vanished into the compound before I could even react.

For some minutes I just stood there and stared into the night, with my hand still on the cheek she had kissed. But suddenly I broke into a big grin and just turned around to walk back home. When I reached the Hokage mansion everyone else was already asleep, well except Naruto and Jiji. I just went to shower quickly and dressed for bed. After this strenuous day it was no surprise that I fell asleep the moment I did hit my bed. Shortly before sleep welcomed me I mumbled one last thing "Maybe something more…"

(Hokage mansion, one hour later)

*Naruto's POV*

The evening still had been very interesting and nice with Hina-chan, even after what had happened earlier today. We had managed to get to Ichiraku's just in time and once we were in the old man Teuchi let it stay open just for us. I really owe him now. We had sat for a long time, we ate and talked and just enjoyed our time together. While I still not know what exactly feel for Hinata, I am now absolutely sure that I want to find out where this leads. I had told Hina-chan just that and she had blushed a really deep shade of red that could have lightened the night (not that my face had been better). But she still had agreed to see where this leads together with me. While still unofficial, I am pretty sure we were dating now.

I would have to ask Jiji or Asuma-sensei about some pointers, or maybe my no-good of a godfather could help me a bit, if he ever comes back to the village that is. Huh, must have been a year since I have last seen him, how time flies. Oh well, I don´t want to get nostalgic now. I moved silently through the house, although Roxas and I had this part of the mansion completely to our self. I quickly checked on Rox and found him already fast asleep, good thing, he had have a hard day. I have to thank Hanabi later for watching over him.

I just prepared for bed and then pretty quickly fell asleep. Tomorrow would be a new day and a good one at that … believe it.


	5. Exam and Traitor

AN: Well not much to say today, so just enjoy the chapter and leave a review. Till next time dear readers.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor Kingdom Hearts and nothing else I might use in this story. There is no profit, no benefits and nothing even remotely similar earned by this fic. I only do it for fun and to enjoy any form of criticism I might get.

* * *

*Roxas' POV*

It was quiet, too quiet for my liking. I sat in the Academy, in fact in the same classroom I had attended the last six years. Six years, man time flies these days. Well I´m only thirteen, but I can still remember the first day at the academy, Naruto had been six and I seven by this time and I can still remember how eager he was to finally get started. Of course even back then he wanted to become Hokage, so for him it was the first step in achieving his dream. I instead wasn´t as eager, for all I care I could have lived an easy life as a merchant or even better an author. But fate seems to have its ways and now six years later I truly have to admit that it has been fun.

Of course the first two years had been very boring, after the training Jiji, Asuma-sensei and Jiraiya-sama had put us through this seemed all too easy. Still we attended like Jiji had instructed us, but every other day Naruto would pull a prank on someone and I always, and I mean ALWAYS, got into the mix when I tried to save his sorry behind. Not that it did much good, mostly it only raised the number of people in detention from one to two. These had been rather easy days thinking back now.

After Iruka-sensei and Jiji had changed the teaching methods and graduation requirements things had been quite harder, but I actually found myself enjoying the challenge. The afternoon courses and the training we got at home had been exhausting as hell, but it sure had paid off after all. Naruto was on the top of the class, closely followed by Sasuke and I, well I tried to stay somewhere in the middle. It wasn´t that I was a bad student and I actually liked to read ('swot' Naruto called me often, the lazy ass) and had a knack for Fuinjutsu and Kenjutsu, but … ah well, let´s just say 'Deception is a Ninja´s greatest weapon'.

Today I was rather grumpy and I actually enjoyed the silence a bit, but the anxiety was going to kill me soon, I am sure of that. For you see, today was the day we have waited for the last six years, because today we could finally reach the next stage in our carrier. Today the Academy Exams took place. But for why I am grumpy, well let´s just say … someone (*cough* Naruto *cough*) had been much too excited to sleep and had kept me up all night long. I admit I don´t need much sleep, but completely without any sleep, well let´s say my patience may be a bit shorter than usual. And it just was that I was second last in the class to take the exam, because they were going alphabetical and Uzumaki Roxas … oh well nothing to do about it.

Then again I did choose the name Uzumaki by my free will. Ah well, maybe some daydreaming will make time flow faster…

_*Flashback*_

_It was October the tenth six years prior. Currently there we see a six-year-old boy running and stumbling through the back streets of Konoha. This boy was none other than Naruto Uzumaki._

_Why and how did it come to this the young boy asked himself, while he ran for his life? He had only wanted to go to the festival that took place on that day each year in Konoha. It was in remembrance of the Kyubi attack six years before and in honor of the Yondaime Hokage, who had laid down his life to defeat this mighty beast. For reasons unknown to him Naruto had always liked the Yondaime Hokage, he was his hero and stood for everything the boy wanted to be one day._

_So why had everything gone bad? He had sneaked out of the Hokage Mansion earlier today to attend the festival(Why am I the only one who isn´t allowed to attend the festival Jiji?), he had ventured through the streets of Konoha for some hours without any interruptions, he had played some games and even brought himself some sweets. But just when he was about to go home everything went bad. He walked through the merchant district on his way home, he had seen a Fox mask in one of the many stalls and decided to buy it. The owner of the stand had seen him and had thrown him out immediately, he had even thrown the Fox mask at him when he told him he wanted to buy it, just before he had chased him away._

_Naruto had taken the mask and got back on his way home, but just a couple of blocks away from it he suddenly heard a bottle crash on the street and shatter rather close to him. And now only five minutes later he was chased by a mob of civilians through the back streets and alleys of Konoha. He had tried to argue with them and told them he had done nothing bad, the poor boy had even offered to give the mask back and ask the merchant for forgiveness. A blue eye and shouts of 'Demon Brat', 'Demon Spawn' and 'kill the Demon' had been his answer. So he ran._

_Normally every half competent Ninja could easily outrun a mob of civilians, unfortunately Naruto had only started his training on the Academy a few months ago and was by no means a real Ninja yet. He was just a normal person and like every normal person he tired at some point. Just when he thought his legs would give in, he slipped and landed face first in a mud puddle. When he turned around to look where his chasers where they were already upon him._

_One man had gotten overly confident and had jumped forward with a knife in his hand, to end the misery and free Konoha from this demon. These would be his last thoughts._

_Naruto saw the knife coming, he saw where it was aimed and he knew he couldn´t get away. He closed his eyes and waited._

_But the pain never came. He heard a thud of something meeting flesh, he heard the crack of a bone breaking and another thud of something fleshy hitting the ground shortly after._

_When he opened his eyes and saw his brother Roxas in front of him, he knew something bad had happened._

_He knew they were safe when a couple of Anbu landed between Roxas and the rest of the mob._

_He knew something was wrong when Roxas staggered back and he had to catch him to stop him from hitting the ground._

_He knew that a knife in your stomach was bad for your health and they needed to get him to the hospital as fast as possible._

_And in the end when asked he knew it was the right decision to donor his blood to save his brother._

_Roxas woke up hours later in the hospital, he tried to remember what happened before he fell unconscious and pictures of him searching Naruto, the angry mob and finally the extreme pain came to his mind. He looked around and noticed he was in a hospital room, attached to a strange device, which was plucked into his arm. His analytical mind noticed that blood was flowing from the machine into is arm and he also noticed that Naruto was also attached to this machine, though he was likely asleep from the looks of it._

_Naruto had obviously donated him blood. Now they were really brothers, even by blood._

_This was the day Roxas asked the Hokage if he could gain the last name of Uzumaki and the day he gained a true brother._

_*End Flashback*_

"Uzumaki Roxas!" The bellowing voice of a Chunin who had come into the classroom woke me from my daydreaming. A quick look to the clock on the far wall of the classroom showed that it had been near to a full hour since Naruto had been called for the exam by the same Chunin. I quickly stood up and walked down the stairs to follow the Chunin. He looked at me, gave me a nod and then started to walk out of the room again.

Shortly before I left the room I turned around for a second and told Ino, who was now the last person in the room, "Don´t worry I will make it quick." I grinned at her and then followed the Chunin.

While I followed the nameless Chunin I thought back to the written test that was part of the exam, we had done it earlier today. While I am rather book smart, I had made sure to barely answer fifty percent, the amount of questions I needed to pass this part of the exam.

The Chunin finally stopped at a training ground at the outskirts of the village, where Iruka-sensei, who long since had made Jonin, and two other Jonin who I didn´t know. Iruka thanked the Chunin and then instructed me to start with this part of the exam.

Well now was the Ninjutsu part of the exam, which was rather easy. First you have to perform five of the Jutsu the Academy taught and in the second part five more of your own choosing.

I easily performed a _Bunshin_, a _Body Replacement_, a _Transformation_ (I did choose Asuma-sensei to change into) and the _Fire Style: Lighter Jutsu_. The fifth Jutsu I did choose was the one Hanabi, Shikamaru and I had created during our mission, the _Dark Sphere Jutsu_. This particular Jutsu created a sphere of complete darkness using a Genjutsu as distraction, a seal as a receipt and finally a certain amount of Chakra to activate the seal and Jutsu to create a sphere of complete darkness in a range of two meters around the seal. Effectively blinding the opponent and giving you the chance to strike.

When I had successfully performed the five Jutsu, Iruka gave me an approving nod and gave me the sign to continue. In short order I performed the _Fire Style: Great Fireball_, _Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet_ (which created a flame in the form of a serpentine dragon) and _Fire Style: Ash Pile Burning_, all of which I had learned from Asuma-sensei and Jiji. The last two techniques I used were two of my own creation and I didn´t need any hand seals for them, since I had created them this way. The _Fire Style: Wing Slash of the Fire Dragon_ and my last one was _Fire Style: Roar of the Fire Dragon _(a huge current of flames spit from my mouth which covered a rather large area in front of me).

After I had performed all required Jutsu Iruka told me I had passed this part of the exam in less than ten minutes and told me we would move on to the next part. Genjutsu.

Well not my strongest field, but thankfully all you had to do was expel three Genjutsu casted upon you by the examiner, in this case Iruka-sensei himself. He used two D-class and one C-class Genjutsu on me, all of which were rather easily expelled by me. Well this could have gone worse.

The last part was Taijutsu, which required a performance of the basic Taijutsu-style taught by the Academy and another performance of a Taijutsu-style of our choosing, I decided the only other Taijutsu-style I knew, Dragon Claw. With both performances good enough I had passed this part as well.

Well Iruka-sensei still gave me the chance to show more things to get better marks and I was half tempted to show my sword skills, since Kenjutsu was my greatest pride, but then I remembered and decided to recline. Deception is a Ninja´s greatest weapon. Or in other words, to hide my strongest skills would do me more good in the long run than showing off would. Thus Iruka-sensei ended the examination for me and withdrew to a more secluded part of the training ground together with the other two examiners.

After two minutes of discussing the matter, they sat back down on the examiners table, while I stood attention in front of them. I may have been or at least seemed calm all throughout the exam, but by now some nervousness had crept its way into me. Time to find out if I managed to pass.

"Roxas Uzumaki, you have managed to pass all the requirements for this exam. Congratulation Roxas, you are now an official Ninja of Konohagakure. And on a more private note, I am very proud of you." He ended with a big smile and held a Konoha headband, the sign of every Konoha Ninja, out to me.

For some seconds I stood stock still, till what Iruka-sensei said finally sunk in and only then I allowed myself a small smile. I strived forward and took the headband from him. "Ahm, Iruka-sensei why did you call me a Ninja and not simply Genin?" By now I had already tied the headband around my left upper arm and stood proudly in front of my Sensei.

"A good question like always, well how about you join Naruto and Mizuki in the Academy playgrounds? He will then explain the rest to you."

"So Naruto has passed too, that is good, not that there ever was any doubt. Okay I will go to Naruto and Mizuki, see you and thanks."

While I ran out of the training ground and back to the Academy I could still hear the last words Iruka-sensei had shouted after me. "Show some respect for your elders Roxas! That´s Mizuki-sensei for you!"

Ridiculous, respect is earned not given and Mizuki has certainly never gained my trust and with respect I don´t even need to start. Mizuki had taught Fuinjutsu in the Academy, but thanks to the training Jiraiya-sensei had put me through while he came to visit Naruto one or another time, I had surpassed Mizuki after he began to teach Fuinjutsu. I was better than the teacher and thus at some point I stopped attending the classes and trained on my own. In Fuinjutsu you need fantasy and some practice with drawing the seals, but you can´t only learn already existing seals like Mizuki tried to make us, you need fantasy and have to create your own seals. Oh well, I think I am digressing. That is the reason Mizuki isn´t my teacher and for why he doesn´t have my respect, well I have seen the looks he gives Naruto. No in my eyes Mizuki is neither my sensei nor a person of respect, he is barely above scum and that is only because he wears the headband too.

I was so deep in my thoughts that I barely noticed that I had reached the Academy playgrounds. When I looked up and came out of my musings, I saw Naruto on the ground and Mizuki standing over him, without a second thought I summoned my swords from their seals and ran over to that scum and my brother. If he has done something to my brother he will pay, one hundred times over…

(Half an hour earlier)

*Naruto's POV*

"Congratulations Naruto, you have passed with flying colors. Now get going, Mizuki is in the Academy playground and will explain everything else to you. Oh and Naruto, if you want we can meet at Ichiraku's later, treat on me." When Iruka-sensei said those words I finally let out the breath I didn´t know I was holding. I made it. I finally am an official Ninja. I just needed to express this feeling.

"Wuuuuhhhhhuuuuuu! Thanks Iruka-sensei, see you later." And with that I ran off jumping in the air every couple of steps. Awesome, now I´m a real Ninja and a step closer to my ultimate goal. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked up to the Hokage monument and the faces of all the previous Hokage. Especially the Fourth Hokage had always been my hero. I looked into the eyes of his stone face and whispered a simple word. "Soon."

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and then got back on track to the Academy playground. It wasn´t that far away and I arrived five minutes later. Since Mizuki wasn´t here I decided to sit down and wait for him. Once I was seated on the swing my thoughts begin to wander to a specific topic. Team Assignments.

I had not a doubt that Rox would pass the exam with one hand on his back and blinded, but unfortunately Jiji had already told me more than once that family members can´t be assigned to the same team. And since Rox had taken my family name and in the process became something like my adoptive brother, there was no way around this rule and thus no way he could be on my team.

Then there were the Hyuga sisters Hina-chan and Hanabi. I had spent a great deal of time in the last six months with Hinata, ever since this fateful mission. Through most of the village had some suspicions and rumors were running around wildly, we still hadn´t made our dating official. And thanks to Rox and Hanabi, who always covered for us, may it be against some villager or Hinata´s father, we could probably keep it that way. So Hinata and I were dating and it was only natural that I got to know her sister quite good, since they always seemed to be together, much like Rox and I. So after the last six months the four of us had gotten pretty close and I wouldn´t mind having one of the Hyuga sisters on my team. Through I would prefer having Hina-chan for obvious reasons.

Shikamaru was also to be considered, I knew he was highly intelligent and from time to time I had seen him and Roxas lying in the grass watching the clouds. Once or twice I have joined them and I must say the peace and the light conversation was enjoyable, I think given the chance Shikamaru would make a good friend and teammate. If it wasn´t too 'troublesome'.

Over the rest of the class my opinion was rather indifferent. Sai was a bit too quiet to know much about him. Not that Shino was different than that. Neji has a stick inside his behind nearly as big as a tree, but the way he looks after Hinata and Hanabi to keep them safe, when he thinks nobody is watching, says much about his true character. Tenten is very friendly and outgoing and I think given the chance she could make a good teammate. Lee, Choji and Kiba had turned out to be rather nice and I can remember when we were younger Rox and I used to play with them from time to time. I think I could at least form a half competent team with any of them.

Really there were only three people in my class I wouldn´t want to have on my team and two of them were the fangirls. Ino and Sakura. I never liked Ino that much and I don´t think I could stand her annoying bragging and screaming for long. In this case I think Shikamaru is right, 'annoying blond'. Well and Sakura … It is funny, not even a year ago I used to have a crush on her, but looking back I don´t see a reason why. This is just something I don´t want to think about and if there is a god up there I beg him to not team me up with one of those fangirls.

And please god don´t give me the 'teme' either. Well, maybe I could get along with Sasuke somehow, at least he would make a good rival, since he is the only one besides Rox who has ever pushed me to my limits. But still with the attitude the 'great and almighty' Uchiha had, I might need to put him down a bit. Maybe it would do him some good to have someone who can keep up with him and it would definitely be interesting to have someone who can push me as much as he can in training.

I was so focused in my musings that I didn´t notice that someone was approaching till his shadow blocked the sun. I looked up and noticed that it was Mizuki. But something seemed wrong about him, something I couldn´t really place my finger on, maybe the look in his eyes … "Ah, hell Mizuki-sensei, what´s goi-"

I was cut off when Mizuki slammed the palm of his hand on my chest with quite a bit of force. I felt a burning on my chest and I landed on the ground painfully. In the distance I could hear footsteps approaching fast, but I couldn´t really concentrate, this pain in my chest was just too much. Just when I was about to black out I felt a hand grip my shoulder and I looked in the concerned eyes of my brother.

*Third Person POV*

"Naruto! Naruto can you hear me? Are you okay brother?" For some moments nothing happened and only the heaving of Naruto´s chest assured Roxas that his brother was still very much alive. After some moments Naruto nodded his head and finally managed, with some help of Roxas, to stand up. Assured that his brother was okay, Roxas glared at the smirking Mizuki. "What the hell did you do to him bastard?!"

"Now, now. I am not here to exchange insults. For what I have done to him, well let´s say I gave him an offer. I placed a _Six-Pointed Death Seal_ on him, don´t bother you can check it later for now both of you should listen. I originally planned for the demon to do this on his own, but considering that you call him your brother its only right that you go down with him. You two will steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals from the Hokage Tower." He was smiling insanely by now and his eyes held a cruel tint. "Oh and don´t try to double-cross me or I will be forced to activate the seal and since you were such a good student Roxas you surely know what that means." He laughed at this point, but nothing kind or happy was in his laugh, both boys were sure by now that this man was in fact insane. "Meet me in the woods north of the Hokage Monument at midnight. Till then you demons." He vanished in a swirl of leaves while still laughing his insane laugh.

Both boys looked at each other, with questioning eyes, before they sprang into action. Naruto nearly ripped his own shirt off and Roxas was there in the same instant checking if what Mizuki said was true. Unfortunately true to his word a Six-Pointed Death Seal emblazoned on Naruto´s chest. Roxas swore once, before he went calm again, Naruto knowing his brother knew better than to interrupt. After some minutes Roxas opened his eyes and grinned at Naruto.

"I have a plan…"

(One hour before midnight, Forest north of the Hokage monument)

"Thank god Naruto you made it. Did everything go according to plan?" Roxas asked, by now he had changed his clothes a little bit. He wore a full-length black coat with a hip high slash in the back and a silver zipper in the front, also a hood is attached to the coat, and furthermore he wears black loose-fitting trousers, black ninja sandals and black fingerless gloves. The rest of his clothing is hidden by the coat.

Naruto who just arrived at the scene had also changed his attire a bit and now wore a black and orange jacket and pants, together with black sandals and loose black coat to hide the distinctive orange of his outfit. He seemed a bit winded since he had just run there from the Hokage Tower and he had a big scroll, attached by a sling, on his back. "Yeah, everything is going well, I made sure to not being seen and Jiji agreed to stay out of this, well mostly. He has some Anbu following him, but they have order to only intercept if things go south."

"Good, now that I think about it, we still have an hour before the traitor shows up. How about we take a little peek inside the scroll?"

"Looks like you can read my mind Rox, I was just about to say the same."

Both boys sat down on the forest floor and opened the scroll. The looked into it, before Naruto took out a blank scroll and a brush with ink and started to scribe down something. Roxas being as curious as he is, decided to ask. "Found something interesting?" While he asked he still didn´t look up and continued to scan the scroll for something that caught his interest.

"Yeah, this _Flying Thunder God Jutsu_ seems quite interesting, but also really hard, so I decided to copy it and try to learn it later when I have more time. And you?"

Just as he asked, Roxas had found something that caught his interest and coincidentally it stood next to the _Flying Thunder God Jutsu_. "Yeah this 'immediate inscribing' seems like a way to inscribe seals on any ground in less than a second and with nearly no Chakra. If I can learn this I will have a great advantage in combination with my Fuinjutsu. And I might just manage to get it down within the time limit."

"Then better less talking and more learning and practicing, right brother?" Naruto grinned at Roxas and Roxas gave him a nod as an answer. Both hurried to finish their self-appointed tasks before Mizuki showed up.

(Half an hour later)

"Aaaaaand done." Naruto closed his scroll with a satisfied smirk and placed it into one of his pockets.

"Same here. Now we just have to wait for-"

"Naruto! Roxas! Just what the hell are you doing here?!" Both boys went into shock, but Naruto quickly got out of it and rolled the scroll up and placed it on his back again. Roxas meanwhile was already scanning the trees from where the familiar voice had come from and quickly found their unwanted guest. Iruka.

Iruka jumped down from the branch he was standing on and sternly looked at both boys. Roxas decided to answer. "Ah hey Iruka-sensei, I know this looks bad, but please believe us this isn´t what it seems to-"

Once again he was cut off, but this time by a voice that put him on the edge much more than Iruka´s had. "It´s sad, now I have to get rid of you too Iruka and I actually considered you a friend once." Mizuki appeared in a swirl of leaves behind Iruka and punched him in the back, hard. Iruka flew forward from the punch, but managed to flip midair and now stood directly in front of us, with his back to us and facing Mizuki.

That however gave Roxas a clear view of a Chakra Disruption Seal Mizuki had obviously placed on Iruka when he had punched him. Roxas knew that things just have gotten much harder, since with this on him Iruka couldn´t concentrate any Chakra. But placing a seal on someone with only your Chakra normally took a very high amount of Chakra and only persons who were at least adapt with seals or users of the 'immediate inscription' would even consider doing something like this. Mizuki obviously didn´t know the 'immediate inscription' since he was already panting hard from just one seal, this could be an advantage.

When Mizuki moved forward to attack the weakened Iruka, Roxas moved forward to intercept and got in between them. He was rewarded by a kick to his stomach from the right, courtesy of Mizuki. He flew to the left and barely managed to right himself in midair to make a half decent landing.

Mizuki seeing that he was outnumbered jumped back onto a branch and made the hand seal of confrontation. For some seconds nothing happened, before Mizuki screamed out in rage. "Why is the seal not activating. You should already be dead by now." He pointed an accusing finger at Naruto, who just grinned in response.

"Because my brother is much better in sealing that you give him credit for. He already deactivated your seal hours ago. You´ve lost traitor!" Naruto shouted and pointed his finger at Mizuki in response.

"You … you … you demon. I have not lost and now you will all die!" He was beyond furious by now. He took a Fuma Shuriken from his back and hurled it with all his might at Naruto.

Iruka knew that Naruto wouldn´t get away from that and placed himself in front of Naruto to catch the Shuriken with his back. He closed his eyes in expectation of the pain. He however opened them again when he heard the 'clang' from metal on metal.

Both Iruka and Naruto looked astonished at Roxas' back, who stood in front of them and had blocked the Fuma Shuriken with a quickly unsealed sword. The Fuma Shuriken was grinding against the sword and sparks were flying everywhere. Roxas knew he couldn´t hold the blade forever and with a great deal of strength he pushed both his sword and the Fuma Shuriken upwards. The Shuriken slipped from the sword and flew upwards, before it impacted into the trunk of a tree. In the process it had sliced Roxas from over his right eye to his hairline, leaving a rather deep cut and had pushed the sword out of his grip, which sliced into the muddy ground three meter to his left. Blood quickly flowed into Roxas' eye and he was forced to close it.

Mizuki used the slight distraction of Roxas to jump forward with a Kunai in hand and set on ending the fools life right now.

Despite the pain and the blood, Roxas was all too aware of the situation. He noticed Mizuki´s descent and he also noticed the two Kunai thrown by Naruto and Iruka out of the brink of his sight. He timed it perfectly and even counted down in his mind.

'Three'. The first Kunai reached Mizuki and he blocked it with his own. 'Two'. The second Kunai flew by Roxas and he quickly snatched it out of the air with his left hand. 'One'. Mizuki landed and tried to plunge his Kunai into Roxas' chest. 'Zero'. Roxas did catch Mizuki´s wrist with his right hand and tried to slash at Mizuki´s neck with his left hand. Mizuki snatched his wrist out of Roxas' grip and jumped back again.

No one had been hurt by this slight encounter, or so it seemed. Mizuki landed some meters away from Roxas and just stood there for a moment, before he decided to change his strategy again. "Why do you even bother trying to protect this demon. Iruka you know what I am talking about and you hate the demon just as much as I do. And you Roxas? Do you know what is inside your dear brother? Do you know why everyone hates him and not even Iruka, his own Sensei, approves of him?"

"Mizuki stop it, if you continue you will break Sandaime´s law."

"As if I care! Twelve years ago the Kyubi wasn´t killed. It was sealed away in a new-born infant. This baby is Naruto. Naruto is the reincarnation of the Kyubi. Hahaha!" Again he laughed insane.

Everyone stood still after this proclamation, till Naruto silently asked. "Is it true Iruka-sensei, you don´t approve of me?"

A deep sigh escaped Iruka, before he spoke up again, with a voice that sounded true and caring. "No Naruto. I may not approve of the Kyubi. But for you, for Naruto, I have nothing but respect. He is a good student and tries his best every time. The Hokage has taken you in like his own grandson and nearly all Ninja know the difference between the prisoner and the jailor. Naruto Uzumaki is a fellow Ninja and citizen of Konohagakure and I approve of him completely!"

Naruto sniffled and a single tear flew out of his eyes, while he muttered a near silent "Thanks."

The moment was however interrupted by Roxas, who began to laugh out loud. He calmed himself and looked Mizuki direct in the eyes with unmatched hatred and disdain. "You call yourself Fuinjutsu user and still don´t know the difference between the storage seal and the stored item, it´s rather sad." He had spoken this part with a big amount of sarcasm, but when he spoke again his voice held steel in it. "Mizuki, you have broken the law of the Sandaime Hokage and are a traitor to the leaf village. Your punishment however, will be decided by the Hokage himself. But for now you shall feel pain. _Two-Pointed Fire Seal: Chakra Flare_ activate." The seal I had placed on Mizuki earlier on, when I had grabbed his wrist, activatet at my spoken command and Chakra

Suddenly Mizuki grabbed his right arm and his face contorted in obvious pain. A second later he fell to the ground and started screaming in pain and wallowed on the ground. This continued for a minute or so till Mizuki fell into blissful swoon. It happened to be at this point that five Anbu came out of the trees surrounding the clearing. They nodded at Roxas, Naruto and Iruka, before two of them picked up the unconscious Mizuki and vanished again into the night.

When the adrenaline from the events slowly died down, they decided to bring Roxas into the hospital for treatment. Iruka was carrying Roxas on his back while they jumped through the trees in the direction of the hospital. It was at this point that Iruka decided to ask something that had been on his mind for some time now. "Naruto, if I may ask, how could you be so calm when Mizuki revealed that secret?"

"Hahaha, well Jiji already told me and Roxas about it six years ago, after I had been attacked by some villagers and Roxas got hurt because of it. I just wanted to make sure if I could trust you, so I went with it." Naruto smiled all through this explanation and absently rubbed the back of his neck with one hand in an embarrassed manner.

Iruka´s head went red and he nearly silent asked "You did what?" When Naruto just continued rubbing his neck he was about to scream at him, when he was interrupted himself.

"That´s all nice and dandy, but could you hurry up you two?! I don´t want this wound to scar … too much." The last part had been added as an afterthought. Both addressed nodded their heads and picked up speed again.

Silently Roxas thought to himself. 'This will be a veeeerrryyyy loooong night…'


	6. Team Assignment

AN: Not much to say, despite enjoy the chapter and leave a Review.

Oh and special thanks to buterflypuss, I hope you will like the upcoming chapters as well.

And don´t worry while I may have concentrated a bit more on Roxas in this chapter, the next one will have more Naruto, believe it. Till then dear readers.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor Kingdom Hearts and nothing else I might use in this story. There is no profit, no benefits and nothing even remotely similar earned by this fic. I only do it for fun and to enjoy any form of criticism I might get.

* * *

(Hokage office, three hours after the 'Mizuki incident')

"And go home directly, no shortcuts or 'ramen-runs'!" When the door to the Hokage office closed and a distant 'yeah yeah' could be heard, Hiruzen sank back into his chair and heaved a heavy sigh. Roxas and Naruto had just left his office, after they had recounted the tale of the previous night's events. Iruka Umino who was also involved with this was still in his office, but frankly the Hokage didn´t care much at the moment. He felt old right now, his bones ached from countless hours of waiting for news on his adopted grandsons and a major headache was slowly developing. He rested back in his chair and took out his pipe and lighted it. He took a long drag from his pipe and exhaled it while he tried to collect his thoughts. He chuckled silently before he spoke directly to the young Chunin in front of him. "One day these two will be the death of me. Now tell me Iruka, is there something you would like to add."

"No Hokage-sama, only a question if I might." Hiruzen gave him a nod and Iruka continued. "Mizuki screamed something about a seal and Naruto said 'Roxas had already deactivated it'. And now they said something about a 'Six Pointed Death Seal'. What exactly is this?"

"A good question, but to explain it I need to delve deeper into the art of Fuinjutsu, so get comfortable. As you may or may not know, seals can do just about everything you can imagine if they are used the right way. Storing items, strengthening or weakening the body and even Chakra, even whole Jutsu can be stored and later released by the right seal and so on.

Now you have to understand what a seal is, basically seals consist of two parts. The inner part we call point and the outer ring that is known as a matrix. The inner part is like the basic layout of a seal and, to put it simple, dictates _what _the seal does. The outer ring is the matrix and as far as I know there are about one hundred different styles for a sealing matrix, the matrix indicates _how_ the seal fulfills its purpose. Even the most complicated seal, normally has a rather easy matrix, as there are only a few ways you can go about how a seal works, so no matter what seal it is the matrix is always bears similarities to other seals. What truly makes a seal special is the inner part, which is also known as the crux. We in Konoha use so-called points for the crux, and you see the more points the more complex the seal is. I´m fairly no sealing expert myself but this describes in simple words the basics of Fuinjutsu.

Now to be a good sealer you need two things, knowledge and fantasy. You need to know as many sealing matrixes as possible and you need to have the fantasy to come up with new points to use for the crux. Roxas for example has both and to boost that he also has a talent for Fuinjutsu, I have seen him do things with a Two Pointed Seal, that even one of my students needed at least Four Points for … and he is considered a sealing master. Roxas is a real prodigy when it comes to seals.

Now on to your question, a _Six Pointed Death Seal_ is one of the worst examples known to Fuinjutsu-users. This seal is mentioned in just about every book of advanced Fuinjutsu there is. It has six points, thus making it rather hard to learn and even harder to break. Once someone has the crux design down and manages to combine it with the right matrix and applies it to someone, this someone can be considered dead. If activated the seal brings about instant death by simultaneously destroying heart, brain and lungs. Up till now there is no one who has ever survived the activation of this seal.

But like I said sealing is not only about knowledge, no the more important part is fantasy. Because once a seal is used too often someone will take the time to find a way to undo the seal. Like I said the _Six Pointed Death Seal_ is a rather widely known seal and thus there are many ways to undo it.

Since Roxas hadn´t had much time I can only think of two ways he could have used and both are extremely complicated. First he could write a seal on his own, that counteracts the matrix of the original seal or he could have found the weakest point in the crux and disentangle the points one after the other. Like I said both are extremely complex methods and thus they just prove what I thought, Roxas is well on his way to become the next Sealing Master.

I know this was a rather lengthy explanation, but it was crucial to make you understand the full extent of tonight's events. I hope that answered all of your questions Iruka."

"More or less, but still if what Roxas did was that hard then his grades from the test were …"

"Deception is a Ninja´s greatest tool." The old Hokage said this with a knowing smile on his face.

Iruka was silent for some moments, mulling over everything he had just learned. He stood up and bowed to the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, I need some time to think this over, since it opens many more possibilities for the team assignments. I will retire for today and see you tomorrow morning Hokage-sama. Goodnight." Iruka bowed once more, before he vanished in a swirl of leaves, courtesy of the _Shunshin Jutsu_.

The Hokage sat there for some moments, still thinking over the day's events, before he decided to retire for the night as well. But he still left three Shadow Clones to take care of the ever-present paperwork.

(Next morning, Hokage office)

"Sorry Hokage-sama, I am deeply sorry for being late." Iruka shuffled into the room, in his hands he held a high stack of papers. He bowed once, nearly losing the papers in the process, and then sat down on the only vacant chair in the room. He placed the stack of papers on the Hokage´s desk, which stood between him and the Third Hokage.

"No need for you to apologize Iruka, but may I know what kept you?" While saying this, the Hokage had already taken the first of the papers out of habit and started looking them over.

"Well for one it were these tests," he pointed to the large stack of papers sitting on the table, simultaneously he took a scroll out of one of his pouches "and this. I actually thought about what you said considering the tests and decided to look 'underneath the underneath'. My findings proved to be very fruitfully. For you see, I have encountered many things the test doesn´t grasp and also some things I completely forgot when I first thought about the team assignments."

"Well I would like to hear your thoughts before we actually start with the assignments, so please explain."

"Well the first thing I thought about was adding a Medic Ninja to every new team, since six persons from these years class took some lessons in Medical Ninjutsu, this shouldn´t be too hard. The next part came from … from a bad memory."

"Care to enlighten me?" Now Hiruzen was intrigued, while he mostly knew what was going on in the village, knowing what was going on in the minds of his Ninja was a completely other thing. And he would be damned if he let this chance slide.

"Well, you maybe remember the Genin Team I was on, we were a specialized tracker team." The Hokage nodded at Iruka, indicating that he indeed remembered. "And you may also remember the circumstances in which my team ended in." Another nod, but this time a rather sad look crossed the old and wrinkled face of the great Hokage, right now he looked older than ever, while he remembered one of the failures he had made in his life. "Bearing this … occurrence in mind, I came up with some other things that should be important for a team of young Ninja.

First every team should be rather mixed, while I admit a specialized team has some benefits, the drawbacks and possible outcomes if such a team came into an unknown situation are far worse. Thus I would like to make 'all-rounder' Teams. Or to say it more clearly each team should have:

A Genjutsu, a Ninjutsu and a Taijutsu fighter.

A long-range, a middle-range and a close-range fighter.

A power, a speed and a stationary type.

A tracker, a tactician and a front-fighter.

And so on. There are other things that need to be considered, such as possible cooperation and the cohesion inside of the team, but I think you get the picture Hokage-sama."

The Hokage gave a nod to show his understanding, but remained silent, while he was going through the test papers and further information on these years new Genin. Once he had reached the last page he looked up and spoke again. "Now I see where you are coming from. Please tell me what teams you would build … oh and please add your explanations as to why you think these teams would be good. Don´t worry we have all day for this."

Iruka remained silent, while he was gathering his thoughts, before he opened the scroll he had taken out earlier and placed it in front of the Hokage. Then he spoke. "Well, seeing as Teams 1 to 6 are still active, I will begin with Team 7 …

(Next morning, Academy)

"Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha … Naruto Uzumaki … and Hinata Hyuga." A quiet gasp, an 'Hn' and an exorbitant big smile (this courtesy of Naruto, since he was paired up with Hinata) answered the announcement of the first team, well and quite a bit of fuss made by the 'Sasuke Fan Club' (Sakura and Ino). After everything had quieted down Iruka continued. "Your Jonin instructor will be Hatake Kakashi.

Team 8: Sakura Haruno … Rock Lee … and Shino Aburame, your Jonin Sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi." Thankfully this time no one interrupted and so Iruka continued.

"Team 9: Neji Hyuga … Tenten Buki … and Sai Hino, your Jonin Instructor is Maito Gai." This time there were a groan and a bunch of fake anime-tears, both coming from Lee, since his Father-figure was to train another team. However Iruka mostly ignored this and continued with the announcement.

"Team 10 will consist of Hanabi Hyuga, Shikamaru Nara and finally Roxas Uzumaki, your Jonin Sensei is Asuma Sarutobi." There was a cheer from the last row, where Roxas and Hanabi shared one of the three-man benches. They both high-fived before they returned their attention back to Iruka and the rest of the class. Their other teammate had acknowledged the assignment as well, he had raised his head from his table, looked at his teammates, muttered 'Troublesome' and had laid down again. Once the antics of this team had ceased, Iruka continued.

"And finally Team 11: Kiba Inuzuka, Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi under Choza Akimichi." 'Otosan?' was what interrupted Iruka once again, but after a stern look from Iruka Choji quickly quieted down. Before he was interrupted again Iruka quickly said the rest of what he wanted to say.

"Now listen closely. I´m very proud that I can call myself your teacher and I know one day you all will be strong Ninja. Till then never forget to take pride in what you are – Konoha Shinobi. Well, I will be going now, your Jonin instructors will pick you up in this classroom after lunch. Bye."

And with that Iruka vanished in smoke and a swirl of leaves.

*Roxas' POV*

Shortly after Iruka had left I turned to Hanabi and asked her a question. "Well, how about we went out for lunch Nabi?" Only seconds after I had said that I realized my mistake. Hanabi turned a deep shade of red and from the heat I could feel from my cheeks I probably matched her right now. I quickly stumbled out some more words. "No, ah … I mean … not like that … I mean with Shikamaru … and so …"

Hanabi quickly regained her normal color and actually got a suspicious glint in her eyes, well I found out why shortly after. "While I wouldn´t mind going out for lunch with you Roxi, I don´t think that is the right way to ask a girl out." I immediately turned five shades darker and I am sure my cheeks could have lightened a dark room right now. "Hahaha, just kidding Rox. And actually it would be a good idea to become acquainted with Shikamaru, if I remember correctly you already know him a bit."

It took me some more seconds to regain my composure, but after my blush had subsided I answered Hanabi truthfully. "Yeah, I got to know him a bit. So let´s go." I was about to stand up, but I decided for a bit of payback beforehand. "Oh, and Hanabi-chan, would you like to go out with me sometime?"

Whatever I had anticipated as an answer, a light blush and a heartfelt "I would very much like that." wasn´t on that list. However somewhere deep inside my heart I felt ecstatic that Hanabi took my offer, even if I hadn´t intended for her to do so. I gave her a true smile as an answer and stood up while holding out my hand for her. She took it and I helped her up, even if it wasn´t really necessary. We walked down to Shikamaru and asked him if he wanted to have lunch with us. He answered with a muttered 'Troublesome', but stood up nonetheless. Soon after we found ourselves on the playing ground in the shade of a tree. We talked about this and that and Shikamaru took part in the conversation every so often as well.

But still most of the time Hanabi and I talked and mostly joked between ourselves. That led me to think about the last six months and how much had happened since this faithful 'mission' gone wrong.

Only two weeks after the 'mission' Hinata and Naruto had become an item. At least that´s what Hanabi and I agreed on, since it was still unofficial. After the 'mission' we four had met nearly every day, to train and sometimes simply to hang out. And just like Hanabi and had thought it would happen, two weeks later Naruto and Hinata went out on their first date. Nothing fancy, just a simple picnic at dinner time in a clearing in the forests near the Hokage monument.

Still this was the day they became a pair and thus Hanabi had won the little bet we had for when it would happen. Resulting in me buying her cinnamon buns whenever she wanted some, which turned out to be rather often (*cough* everyday *cough*).

For that date Hanabi and I both had taken rather important tasks to ensure it would go smoothly. For I know most of the civilians wouldn´t like for Naruto to have a girlfriend (ignorant idiots) and Hanabi for her part knew how her clan could be. So she ensured that her father was occupied and no Hyuga came even close to the monument, while I had prepared the picnic and after that personally guarded the stairs to the Hokage monument, by challenging everyone who wanted to use them.

Not my best idea in hindsight, because once an exited Lee had heard of a worthy challenger he came running by and I had my hands full for some hours. And afterwards Jiji scolded me for my 'prank'. Hanabi hadn´t fared much better, because she had arranged a lengthy training session with her father, while the whole clan was watching her. Still everything worked, since nobody had noticed or knew something about Naruto´s and Hinata´s date. Even if I had to do chores around the village for a whole week and Hanabi complained even days later about being sore from the extensive training session. Still everything worked out well.

Unfortunately that didn´t held for long.

On their second date Hanabi and I were on lookout, … again. But afterwards Jiji came up to me and apologized for the lecture he had given me. So Jiji was the first to find out. Bad, but it could have been worse.

Sadly worse came a month later, when Hiashi-sama summoned Naruto to him. As his brother I accompanied him as a moral support, a decision I still regret. Despite being not hostile or sending hateful glares in Naruto´s direction, like most civilians and some Ninja did, he still frightened me and especially Naruto a great deal. While he actually allowed Naruto to date Hinata, he still wanted them to do so unofficial, since he wasn´t sure how the elders of his clan would react (clan politics seem to be really 'troublesome'). And his threat about Naruto and not having children, ever, if he ever voluntarily or involuntarily hurt Hinata wasn´t hollow words either. The sword he kept polishing while he spoke this threat didn´t help either. Now everything seemed okay, but do to the elders Hanabi and I still played lookout every so often.

Naruto had also told Asuma-sensei about his relationship and Jiraiya-sama had somehow 'sensed' that Naruto was in a relationship when he had visited last time. But out of this people no one knows, we think, and we planned to let it stay this way.

These musings reminded me, that I would better ask Hiashi-sama beforehand, if I want to go out with Hanabi. Better is better. I was caught off guard and came out of my musings, when a shadow came over me and blocked my view of the sun.

By now our lunch was long since eaten and we had laid back a bit. Shikamaru actually managed to fall asleep lying on his back in the tree´s shadow. Hanabi had leaned on the tree in a half sitting – half lying position and played with some grass strands. I for my part lay a bit away from them, not far but still, since I never in my life had to worry about sunburns, I thought this was a good time to enjoy the sun a bit. Thus I noticed the shadow coming upon me even with my eyes closed.

"Wow, you are early."

"No, you are just late. Lunch was over an hour ago and we were meant to meet back in the classroom." Asuma´s voice was stern, but I could detect no bad intentions in it and thus I decided to play around a bit.

"But uncle Asumaaaaaaaa, it´s such a nice weather, can´t we stay outside, pleeeaaaaassssseee?" I whined and had to try really hard to suppress the laugh that was coming up. And it took me even more willpower to keep the grin from my face when I heard Asuma sit down with a heavy sigh.

"Fine, but in exchange you will refer to me as Asuma-sensei. Is that clear?"

I gave a mock salute, while I still lay in the sun. "Yes, sir!" And now I couldn´t suppress the laughter and neither could Hanabi suppress the sweet giggle I heard from her. Hell I even heard Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru snigger at my performance, wait when did Shikamaru wake up?

"Okay, okay now that we all had a good laugh, how about we introduce ourselves. Names, dreams, likes and dislikes, things like that. Since I´m in a good mood I will even begin. My name is Asuma Sarutobi, I like many things and can´t think of many things I dislike. My dream is to one day marry the most beautiful women in the village and to protect the next generation and … huh … oh yeah a hobby of mine would be smoking and playing shogi. Now Blondie how about you?"

"Oh you know me already, but oh well for the 'sake of the team'. The name´s Roxas Uzumaki, got it memorized? I like being with my friends, training and a good prank sometimes. I absolutely can´t stand people who judge people for no reason, or before they get to know them. My dream … huh … that´s a tough one, but I think it would be protecting anyone important to me, even if I have to set my life on the line. For hobbies there would be reading a good book, being with my friends and sometimes I enjoy cloud watching with lazy over there."

"Well I suppose that´s my cue. Shikamaru Nara, don´t have any particular likes and I dislike everything troublesome. My dream is to live a normal life, marry a normal girl, have two children and then retire early to play shogi for the rest of my life. Hobby would be cloud watching, but shogi from one time to another isn´t that troublesome."

"Since I´m the only one left I think I will give it a go now. My name is Hanabi Hyuga and I like my friends and family, I however dislike some practices in my family, especially this accursed seal. My dream is to become the clan head and getting rid of the _Caged Bird Seal_. My hobbies are gardening, spending time with my friends and my sister and it seems like I actually enjoy the mischief Blondie over there is causing."

"Okay team with that out-of-the-way I want you to prepare for a survival test we will have tomorrow. As you all are probably aware of this will be the real Genin test. Meet me at training ground thirteen at ten o'clock sharp. Oh and skip lunch if you know what´s better for you, or you might throw up. Bye." And thus Asuma-sensei vanished in a swirl of leaves.

For some moments no one said anything, till I decided to voice what we all were thinking. "Well, shit …"

Hopefully Naruto has had an easier time with his team and Sensei.

*Naruto´s POV*

That´s it. I barely know him a minute and already I can´t stand this scarecrow guy with the silver hair and he is supposed to be our Sensei? Great, just great. Not only was he late two hours and then he did fall for my prank, no he had to say we weren´t 'impressing'. While I would normally not care about this, for one I could see how it had affected Hina-chan´s confidence and on the other hand I was already fed up, since Hina and I were stuck with the ever-brooding emo teme, Sasuke. And now this guy, wait I think he said his name is Kakashi. Well Kakashi-sensei, let´s see how you handle Roxas´ special seal.

"I´m Naruto Uzumaki, believe it. I like my friends, my family and Hinata-chan and Ramen of every kind. I can´t stand people who judge people without knowing them or for things they had no say in ... oh and I hate to wait three minutes for ramen to get ready. And my dream … is to become the greatest Hokage ever, believe it."

"Interesting, girly next."

"Oh, ahm my name is Hinata Hyuga and I like my family and ahm Naru-kun. I dislike people who judge others for no reason and some practices used by my family. My dream is to become a strong Kunoichi and always stand by Naruto-kun´s side."

"Very well, emo you´re next."

"Hn, Sasuke Uchiha. I don´t like or dislike anything in particular. And I don´t have a dream, because I will certainly make it reality. I will revive my clan and kill a certain someone."

"Well, that´s all nice and so on. Now on to important business. Tomorrow meet me at training ground seven at five in the morning, sharp! We will do a surviving test to determine if you really become Genin or go back to the Academy. Just so you know, there´s a sixty-six percent failing rate for this test. Bring your gear, all of it. Oh, and you better not eat breakfast or you might puke. Till then, see you."

This Kakashi guy vanished in smoke and a swirl of leaves, but not before my Shadow Clone managed to place a paper seal tag on him. Have fun with the _Orange Exploding Uzumaki Special Seal_ Kakashi-sensei. For some minutes we all sat there thinking this over, till Sasuke got up and left without saying anything. Hinata and I sat there for some more seconds, before I decided to speak up.

"Well Hina-chan, how about we train a bit and then grab dinner?"

Hinata blushed a little bit, but nodded nonetheless. "Sure, I would like that. Let´s go."

Well this certainly was … an interesting day thus far and tomorrow will probably just as interesting. But as long as Hina and I work together nothing can go wrong … I hope.

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AN: If anyone wants to know why I made the teams this way, just leave a review and I will add the full explanation to the author notes in the next chapter.


	7. Preparations

AN: I am deeply sorry for not updating, but I got cut off from the internet. Fun thing is, just to write this I made my way into an internet cafe. But this probably doesn´t interest you very much, so on to more important matters.

This chapter isn´t an important chapter, it´s more of an character-development, and less important for the story line. However I felt the need to get a closer look on the important characters and their relationships, before the main story kicks in, which will be in the next chapter.

But for now, I hope you enjoy this chapter AND I hope that I will be back online very soon, so that you don´t have to wait this long again. But don´t get your hopes up too high, I can´t make promises.

Nothing left to say, but enjoy this chapter and till next time dear readers.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor Kingdom Hearts and nothing else I might use in this story. There is no profit, no benefits and nothing even remotely similar earned by this fic. I only do it for fun and to enjoy any form of criticism I might get.

* * *

(Hokage mansion, early evening)

*Roxas' POV*

"I will leave you two lovebirds alone now, see you." Here he goes again.

"Naruto, how often do I have to tell you this is no date?! This is a team meeting, to discuss the test we will be given tomorrow." By now I clearly felt the heat coming from my cheeks and if I had to guess, my blush was probably rivaling Hanabi´s right now. Hanabi, who sat next to me on the couch, coincidently, just nodded along with my explanation.

Naruto meanwhile was laughing his ass off after his little comment, after a minute or so he had finally composed himself enough to speak again. "Suuuuurrreeee, you know that you both look hilarious right now? Oh and if this is a team meeting than where is Shikamaru, you know your other team member?"

Once again he began to laugh and seeing that Hanabi tried to hide in her bulky jacket, it probably came down to me to answer, again. "How should I know where this lazy ass is?! I told him to meet us here, not my fault that he is too lazy to actually show up." I really had the urge to growl at the moment and it only got stronger when Naruto just continued to laugh.

This urge only intensified when Hanabi suddenly decided to tease me as well. "Oh come on Roxi, just admit that you wanted to be alone with me." From what Naruto and Hanabi told me afterwards I had invented a new shade of red in exactly this moment.

Okay I can admit I might have been a bit flustered and yeah maybe I had stuttered a bit, but it wasn´t that bad. "Wh- wh- what, I mean no, ah yes, ah whatever …" Naruto was now lying on the ground from all the laughing and Hanabi´s sweet giggles accompanied his laughter. Wait, 'sweet'? Ah whatever, out of frustration I looked around the room to find some sort of this distraction. That´s when my eyes landed on a clock, which hang on the opposite wall, grinning evilly and with only one thought ('Payback') in mind I spoke up. "Haha, rarely laughed so much. Sadly through Hinata can´t laugh with us, because she is waiting at home for a certain blonde to pick her up. Now that I think about it, Hiashi-sama probably won´t be happy that said blonde is late. Ah well, not my problem, right dear brother?"

You could practically see the gears in Naruto´s head turning and after five seconds his face showed pure fear, and I have to admit I never saw him run this fast ever before. Before I could even blink he had left through the window with a shout of "Crap! See you tomorrow." and was running over the roofs. Maybe I should have mentioned that he has still half an hour left … Nah. Grinning I turned over to Hanabi who was still sitting next to me and now was laughing quite loudly. Time for part two of my revenge. Once I was sure she was completely distracted, I positioned myself and started tickling her sides mercilessly.

While I later admitted that I might have gone a bit far, I never regretted it. I tickled her for a full ten minutes. She squirmed and actually begged for me to stop, but I did no such thing. Only when she squirmed so much that she fell of the couch and landed on the ground with a soft 'thud' I stopped.

I looked down at her with a bit of surprise, because the way she looked right now, damn … Her cheeks were slightly pink, her mouth still half-open from all the laughing and her eyes half closed from the dazed state she was in. I decided that she deserved a little rest and picked her up bridle style and laid her back onto the couch. This however did go nearly unnoticed, since she was still rather dazed. Deciding to do something productive for a change, I let her lie there and made my way to the next room, the kitchen, to prepare something to eat for us.

While I wasn´t a master chief, I still knew one or two tricks and all the time Naruto and I had spent with the Sarutobi family had greatly helped with that. Since we could walk properly we had decided to help in the household as much as we could. Naruto always helped with cleaning and the gardens, while I helped with, or later on prepared by myself, every meal we spent together, which was mostly breakfast and dinner. Thus I had picked up some skills from Kira (AN: Since I didn´t found a name I gave Konohamaru´s mother one) and nowadays whenever she was on a business trip with her husband, who was a merchant, I took care of the kitchen. When I walked into the kitchen my stomach loudly reminded me that I hadn´t eaten all that much today and thus I decided something warm was needed to calm my rummaging stomach.

Going through a variety of ingredients I rather quickly decided on what to make, after all it was my first self-made recipe and one of my best dishes. But it took rather long to make … One look out of the kitchen solved this problem however. Hanabi had dozed off and thus I would have more than enough time for what I had planned. Whistling I walked back into the kitchen, got a large pot and a pan on the stove and started it with a bit fire chakra. Yup, that would be great.

I wonder through how Naruto is doing?

*Naruto´s POV*

Grumbling under my breath while I was escorted to Hiashi-sama´s study, I cursed my brother. I had raced at top speed to the Hyuga compound, I even pushed past my normal limits, just to reach it in time. Only to find out I still had nearly half an hour left. Now I was led by a branch member to Hiashi-sama´s study to wait for Hinata to get ready. Damn it, just what I needed.

"Here you are _Uzumaki-sama_, you may enter." The Hyuga gave a mock bow and it didn´t take a genius to find out he despised of me. The way he had said my name made that pretty clear. I gave him a half nod in return, all the way making sure to keep my eyes on him, and then slowly entered the study through the paper door.

Bowing while standing in the entrance I decided to give my greeting. "Good evening Hiashi-sama. It is good to see you on such a nice evening, I hope you are well."

Hiashi sat behind his desk, which (much like the Hokage´s desk) always seemed to be filled with all sorts of papers. "Oh, good evening Naruto, yes I´m doing rather well and I was greatly pleased to hear that my daughters passed the Academy Exam at the top of the class for girls and made the second and fourth place in the complete ranking. While it may have surprised me a bit to hear that you made the second place for the boys and the fourth in the complete ranking, I also have to say that I would have accepted nothing less from a possible suitor for one of my daughters. I assume that you are here to take Hinata out?"

I admit I maybe would have turned red at the suitor comment, but I knew in front of this man I could not allow myself such a slip, so I got my raging emotions under control and answered in the most polite way I could. "That is true, but there is another reason. My brother sends his greetings and asked me to ask for a meeting with you, he also mentioned that it would be good to hold it at the Hokage estates. Privacy matters as far as I know."

"Hm, young Roxas, he sure is an interesting boy I hear. From my information he barely managed to pass the Exam and on the other hand he nearly single-handedly defeated a Chunin. Care to explicate?"

"Hiashi-sama, a man of your knowledge and standing surely knows that looks can be deceiving. After all we are in a Ninja village and deception is a Ninja´s greatest tool. My brother merely held up appearances and at the same time managed to deceive most people and keep his stronger techniques hidden. From what he explained to me, he didn´t even show his skills in Fuinjutsu in the Exam, yet he managed to defeat Mizuki-teme with Fuinjutsu alone. I think this will suffice to answer your question."

"Indeed it does and it explains many things. Naruto, I must say I´m impressed. You obviously worked hard to achieve your standing in this year´s graduating class and you also worked on your manners greatly. So for this once I will allow Hinata to stay over at the Hokage mansion … that is if she wishes to do so. However, I just want to remind you of our … 'talk', when you first came to me. I would not tolerate any 'inappropriate' behavior from either of you. And no matter what happens, I would make you responsible. Clear?!"

One day this man would be my early death, I was going from jumping out of joy to sweating bullets in a matter of seconds here. Forcing myself to calm down and effectively slowing my heartbeat to a more normal level, I finally thought I was ready to handle Hiashi again. I bowed low, till my nose nearly touched the ground and straightening myself I spoke in the most respectful voice I could. "I deeply appreciate your generous offer Hiashi-sama and don´t worry, we both know the meaning of boundaries and have no intention to cross them." Thankful that this was out-of-the-way I took a deep breath to collect myself again. And suddenly a thought came to me, if I hadn´t been in such a stuck up company right now I would have called myself a genius. "I just had an idea Hiashi-sama. And while it may not be my place to ask, I will do it nevertheless. I just thought of a way for you to 'enforce' the mentioned boundaries and at the same time make some people very happy. I want to ask you, if maybe Hanabi-chan could sleep over as well."

Hiashi was definitely surprised by that request, while he showed no outward signs, the silence and the deep breath he took absolutely confirmed it. I showed no signs either, but internally I was making a victory dance at that. Uzumaki Naruto, the one person who can even surprise the 'all-seeing' Hyuga, believe it.

After some moments to collect himself, Hiashi answered. "Hm, I see where you´re coming from and I presume it would be a good idea. However, for me to send over _both_ my daughters for a sleepover … I hope you realize what a sign of trust this is. I allow it."

"And your trust will not be misplaced Hiashi-sama, believe it. However, could you please inform Hinata of this. She may want to pack some things, since we have our Genin test tomorrow. I will make sure that Hanabi-chan knows about this as well."

"So it is true that you and Hinata are on the same team, as are your brother and Hanabi. In this light a sleepover seems like an even better idea, to give you all time to prepare yourself. I will inform Hinata now. You may wait at the gate. Oh, and realize Naruto that if you, your brother or one of my daughters does something inappropriate, fails the test or something else … unexpected happens, it will be on you. Understand?" I had to take another deep breath to steady my nerves, but other than that I showed no signs of my growing uneasiness. Nonetheless I gave Hiashi an approving nod and thus accepted these terms. "Well then, good night Naruto and take good care of my daughters. I will know if you don´t. Oh and tell your brother that I would like to come over tomorrow at noon, after the test of course."

Giving one last bow to Hiashi, I was then led out of Hiashi´s office and back to the gate. Once there I decided to take the easy way to notify Roxas and Hanabi of this new development. I created a _Shadow Clone_ and send it off to inform those two, while I waited for Hinata.

(An hour later, Hokage mansion)

*Third Person´s POV*

"So, everything settled Hina-chan. Now I´ve definitely worked up an appetite, so want to go out to grab something to eat." Naruto and Hinata came out of a spare bedroom, which was located on the same hallway as Roxas' and Naruto´s own bedrooms. He had placed Hinata´s gear, which she had brought with her for the Genin Test, in there.

Hinata came out after him and answered him while they were walking back to the sitting room. "Well, yeah actually I am quite hungry as well, but this late in the evening I don´t really want to go out there anymore." By now they had arrived back in the sitting room. "Can´t I just borrow your kitchen and make us something?"

"Don´t bother!" Came the shout from the kitchen and seconds later Roxas strolled out of the kitchen whipping his hands. "I had already prepared dinner for Nabi and myself, but it should be enough for the four of us."

Suddenly Naruto´s whole face lit up and a big grin spread across his face. "Oh you have to try Roxas' cooking Hina-chan, it´s one of the best things I have ever eaten. So, what´s for today Rox?"

"Curry with rice and breaded chicken filets." Came the casual reply from Roxas, while he walked back into the kitchen. "Actually it should be ready by now. Naruto swing your ass in here and help me prepare the table. Oh, and Hinata could you please tell Nabi that dinner is ready."

(Half an hour later)

"That … that was one of the best meals I´ve ever had that was very nice of you Roxi." Hanabi was in a state of pure bliss and meant every word she had said. With a talent like that Roxas could probably give the cooks at the Hyuga mansion a run for their money.

"Yep, once again you outclassed yourself there Rox." For Naruto this was more of a common thing, but like always Roxas had mixed up a very nice meal and who was he to deny praise to those who truly earned it.

"It was a very nice meal, thank you very much Roxas-kun. Actually from time to time I try myself at cooking, so could you maybe give me the recipe?" While it was not common for Hyugas to prepare their own meals, due to the large staff of professional cooks they had, Hinata really liked cooking and with a recipe like that …

"Thanks, it was nothing. And it would be no problem Hinata, … if you would finally drop the honorific that is." Roxas was blushing a bit at all this praise, but was also really pleased to know that everyone had liked his cooking.

"But it would be inappropriate …" A stern look from Roxas showed his opinion to Hinata´s statement. Taking a deep sigh Hinata accepted a lost battle. "Fine, then it would seem I can only thank you again Roxas. … Better?"

"Much and don´t worry, I will write the recipe down later ok?" Hinata gave him a nod and satisfied Roxas stood up, collected the dishes and placed them in the sink to clean them later. "While I don´t mind your company at all, I think you and Naruto should head to bed, after all your test starts rather early, right?"

Thinking for a moment Hinata decided on an answer "Normally I would agree, but this is a rare if not unique chance and seeing that it is still rather early I think we can stay up for a bit. You okay with this Naru-kun?"

Naruto himself thought about it for a second before he nodded and went to the sitting room. Shortly after he came back with a stack of cards. Seeing them Roxas groaned and placed his head on the table. "Sow how about some rounds of Poker?" Naruto asked grinning.

After some rounds of Poker (all of which were won by Naruto, thanks to his unholy luck) they decided to do something else and do some planning for tomorrow's test. While Naruto and Hinata made a stroll through the vast gardens belonging to the Hokage mansion, Roxas and Hanabi had made themselves comfortable in the sitting room.

*Naruto's POV*

I will admit, as beautiful as the gardens around the Hokage mansion might be, they just don´t hold a candle against the beautiful lady that was currently with me. While Hinata and I strolled through the vast gardens surrounding the mansion, I thought about the last few months. Or precisely the months after the camping trip and Hinata´s and mine … relationship, might be the best word.

We had went on some dates after that fateful day, first as friends, but nowadays I´m starting to wonder. While I greatly enjoyed the time I spend with Hinata, something was different with her around, in comparison to the time I spend with my other friends. Sure I knew the basic concept of boyfriend and girlfriend and I knew that it was different than normal friend. But no one ever explained to me these complex emotions, so I was a bit at loss here.

We were great friends and I´m sure we could make a good couple, well maybe. But there was also the fact that either Hinata or Hanabi would be the heir to the Hyuga clan and Roxas once mentioned that this could cause some problems. Then there was the fact that we now were on the same team, and while I´m really glad to have Hinata on my team, as she is one of the best persons I could think of, there was also the fact that if something happened between us it would affect the whole team.

To say it bluntly all this was quite frustrating, on one hand I wanted to be with Hinata, as friends or else … but on the other hand I wanted, or better I wished for her to be my girlfriend. But there were so many problems with that … and there was the fact of her family and the team … and I don´t even know what she thinks about all this … and … and … And from all this thinking my head starts to hurt. Damn it.

Just when my head started to hurt Hinata bent down to get a closer look at one of the flowers. Ok Naruto, you need to get your act together. Calm down, breathe and stop thinking so hard. What does Rox always say, 'if thinking with your nutshell of a brain gets you nowhere, than you can always rely on your heart, as far as I know mine has never led me wrong'. Ok thinking with my heart … How the hell am I supposed to do this?

Just as I was about to start an internal rant against Roxas and his dumb advises, Hinata stood back up shot me a heart melting smile and took my hand to lead us further down the path and deeper into the gardens.

The moment she smiled at me, I got a very nice and warm feeling in my stomach region. And the moment she took my hand my heart sped up some paces. Well I´m rather slow sometimes, but even I got the hint my heart was sending me. But does Hinata really want to be my girlfriend?

Only one way to find out. I stopped and Hinata turned around with a curious look on her face. Her very beautiful face, if I might add. Here goes nothing. "Ahm, Hi- Hinata, I … I have a question for you. Would you … would you like to be my … my …" I just couldn´t say it. By now Hinata had a strange expression on her face, like a mixture of confusion and hope. And just by this look she gave me a bit more confidence. Oh come on Naruto, you are a god damn Ninja, get your guts together and just ask her. "Hinata would you like to be my girlfriend?"

For some moments there was absolute silence and even the buzzing sounds of the insects inhabiting the gardens had stopped. Hinata´s face seemed to be frozen with an unreadable expression and just by looking at this mask I lost every ounce of confidence I had earlier on. One look at her was enough for me to stumble out an apology and ask her to forget that I had ever said anything.

But before I even managed to get the first word out, Hinata had flung herself at me and was hugging me furiously. I think that means yes.

After we had both composed ourselves a bit, Hinata gave me a real 'yes' and we continued our stroll through the gardens. Neither of us said much, but it was no uncomfortable silence. By the time we reentered the house it was already late in the evening, so we decided to retire for the night. Hinata gave a little kiss on the cheek before she vanished into the guest room she shared with Hanabi. After that I practically skipped to my room and once again slept very peacefully. Yep life was good right now.

*Roxas' POV*

"Well with Shikamaru´s plans, I think we should be able to pass whatever test we get tomorrow. So that wraps this up. Now I-" Hanabi and I were just finishing our talk about tomorrow's test, when Hinata and Naruto reentered the house, effectively interrupting my line of thought.

They seemed somehow off and this assumption was proven when Hanabi called out to them, but they simply ignored her. They only had eyes for each other and if I didn´t know better I would have said they were floating through the room. After they had left the room, Hanabi and I sat silent for some moments, both contemplating what had just happened.

The silence ended, when I decided to voice the question that probably was on both our minds. "Do you think he finally asked her?"

Hanabi sat still for a moment, before she began to giggle. "He better has. It´s about damn time, they both had danced around each other for some months now." We shared a laugh at that. But then Hanabi grew more somber and asked "Do you think that will change something?"

For some moments I sat there and contemplated every possible answer. At the end I concluded to answer in the most truthful way possible. "I really don´t know what will happen now. While I´m sure that this will change some things, I also have much trust in the plans we have set in motion already. Our best bet would be to go with what we have planned and alter them if necessary. Do you think we have everything in motion?"

Hanabi thought about my answer for another minute or so, before she decided to respond. "Well, I can only say this from the Hyuga site of the story, but from my opinion I think that with the talk we have with dad tomorrow everything should be fine. At least I hope so … And if not, we could always-"

"Don´t! Please don´t remind me of that option. This is a bridge we will have to cross when it comes to it. For now I still have hope in our original plan. You called it a 'spark of hope', right?"

Hanabi let out a sweet little giggle at that comment, but when she answered her voice was void of any emotion and only carried a great deal of conviction. "A spark of hope, indeed and if we are lucky it will become a flame. Puh, from all this planning I will get a headache. Let´s leave this matters for now, okay?"

I gave her a small, but nonetheless heartfelt, smile and nodded once. We both sat back and just enjoyed the silence and each other's company for a while. I don´t know who intoned it, but by the time we decided to head to bed, we were both on one of the couches and snuggled rather comfortably together. When we realized the position we were in, we normally would have been extremely embarrassed, but quite frankly we were simply to sleepy for that. So we just ignored our compromising position, stood up and headed to our respective rooms.

Shortly after I lay in bed and felt sleep claiming me slowly, and my last thoughts came back to the plans Hanabi and I had made. Well the stakes were extremely high and there were many things we would have to give up for the time being, but the winnings would definitely be worth it. I actually came to the same conclusion as Hanabi, this plan was indeed a spark of hope, at least for the Hyuga and the Uzumaki family…

(The next morning, Hokage estate)

*Third Person ´s POV*

The next morning started early in the Hokage estate and by five thirty, all members and guests of the house – at least the Ninja-site. The Hokage, Hiruzen, had already left by five, since his work _ALWAYS_ called for him. Asuma had left to meet up with the other Jonin who would admire a test today and probably prepare the test. Hinata sat on the porch and waited for Naruto to get ready, she was extremely nervous since they were already half an hour late, but still decided to wait for him. She was accompanied by Roxas, who always had been an early-riser and he was currently sharpening one of his swords and going over his inventory while he waited for Hanabi, but at least still had more than enough time left before they had their test. Said girl was currently rolling around on her mattress in the guest room and grumbled about 'too loud and muuuuuuch too early'. The reason for her grumbling was Naruto, who had overslept a bit and was now running through the house and tried to gather his equipment.

Finally, ten minutes later, Naruto emerged from the house. He quickly grabbed Hinata´s hand and together they dashed off, over the roofs of course. Roxas remained and with a shake of his head, that didn´t manage to wipe the grin of his face, continued to sharpen one of his swords.

Just when he had finished preparing this sword, about five minutes later, Hanabi emerged from the house. She stood in the doorway still in her sleepwear, which consisted of shorts and a shirt at least two sizes too big. With a wry grin she asked the remaining blonde "Do you think they will make it?"

Considering the two meanings of his answer, Roxas said "They are going to be fine, don´t you worry. No, how about you grab a shower and meanwhile I can prepare us a small breakfast?"

Hanabi answered with a thankful grin and walked back into the house. Roxas too walked back into the house. Just when he was about to enter the kitchen he heard Hanabi say, from the hallway, "Didn´t Sensei say we shouldn´t eat breakfast?"

"Can´t fight on an empty stomach, now can you? And if you don´t tell him …"

A sweet giggle was his answer and with another shake of his head he moved on into the kitchen.

At half past nine these two young Ninja finally moved out of the house, fully prepared for whatever there may come. Only one thing left to say: Let the test begin!

* * *

AN: IMPORTANT!

Sorry guys, but my life is a bit stressful right now and I´m not sure I can handle three major stories right now. So as sad as it is, I will have to put this story on hold.

I will still update from time to time, but for now ...

Well sorry, but I hope you can forgive me.


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